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FORTY YEARS AGO 



A CONTRIBUTION TO 



The Eap^ly Mistop^y 



OF 



]JoLiET AND Will County 



TAT^O XiECX'TTK-ES 



DELIVERED BEFORI-: THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JOLIET. 



GEORGE H. WOODRUFF. 

M 

December 17th, 1873, and March 24th, 1874. 



PUBLISHED BY JAS. GOODSPEED. 



1?^ 



JOLIET: 

JOI.IET RKPUBLICAN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 
1874. 



;.^ 



^-T05.f^' 



1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in <he year 1874, by James Good- 
speed, in the office of Librarian of Congress, Washington. 






k 



LETTER FROM HON. JOHN M. WILSON. 



Chicago, July 4th, 1874. 
James Goodspked, Esq., 

Dear Sir: — The advance sheets of the Lectures of Hon. 
Geo. H. Woodkuff, on the '■"Early History of Joliet and Will County,'' 
are received. With most of the persons named I was accxuainted, and many 
of the incidents related were known to me more than thirty years ago. The 
style of the Lectures is characteristic of the writer, direct and truthful, and 
at the same time fringed with a bit of good-natured exaggeration, which 
gives piquancy to the narration. A man who can so happily do this with 
the pen, has no cause to regret that he has not the pencil of Nast. To the 
early settlers of Will county, and their descendants, these Lectures carmot 
fail to be intensely interesting ; recalling, as they do, persons and events 
that had been forgotten or but imperfectly remembered. To the general 
reader they give a reliable history of the early settlement of the county, and 
photographs by description and anecdote, of a large number of the early set- 
tlers, so accurate that the most unimaginative can realize the state of soci- 
v.ity at that era, made up as it was of the Yankee, the Hoosier, the Southron, 
the Celt, the Teuton— and of each class, representative men of more than 
average intelligence and enterprise. Friend Woodruff has rendered a valu- 
able service to posterity in thus perpetuating the memory of persons and 
events which rest only in the remembrance of the generation to which he 
belongs. It is only by publishing in permanent form the essays or lectures 
embodying the history of an early settlement, that posterity can appreciate 
either the character of the early settlers or the condition of the country in a 
state of nature, and the wondertul changes wrought by civilization in less 
than forty years. The history of Will county is substantially the history of 



IV. LiKTTKR FROM HON. JOHN M. WILSON. 

every county iiortii of Peoria. The only men who can write the early his- 
tory of these northern counties are fast passing awaj', and in a few years 
no one will be left to gratify that tiiirst for a knowledge of the Genesis, or 
beginning of things, which is so striking a characteristic of all races of men. 
Fable is sure to fill the gap which history leaves unoccupied. 

Other settlements would do well to follow the example set by the " Will 
County Historical Society,"' and secure a reliable history and biography of 
those who laid the foundation upon which others have built. 

Yours, truly, 

JOHN M. WILSON. 



PREFACE. 



^J|T may seein like affectation to dignify so humble an eflbrt with a 
"M^ preface; yet I have a word or two to say by way of explanation 
and apology. 

I began the work of gathering material for these Lectures at the 
request of Capt. Egbert Phelps, of the Historical Society. When 
the suggestion was first made, I doubted that I could find enough to 
make one lecture; but I soon found that the difficulty would be to 
select and condense what I had gathered, into two; and that I should 
be obliged to leaye many things unnoticed. 

There is considerable inatter in them which, from pity to my hear- 
ers, I omitted in the delivery, and some has also been added since. 

I have taken considerable pains to make the historical portions coi- 
rect, especially the names of " First Settlers," but still there may be 
errors. Any corrections or additions would be thankfully received. 
One or two errors disco\'ered too late for correction in the text, will be 
found correcteci in an appendix. 

Some of the '' Incidents " are given from recollection, others I 
tell as they were told me — carefully excluding everything that could 
give offense. 

These Lectures are published in compliance with a general request 
from those who heard them, and through the generous proposal of 
Mr. GooDSPEED, who, I trust, will be amply rewarded. 

I wish to make my most grateful acknowledgements to Judge 
Wilson, of Chicago, for his kind and flattering letter of introduc- 
tion, and especially for bestowing the title of which I have been so 
long deprived! The ambition of a lifetime is satisfied ! "Nunc," 

etc. 

Geo. H. Woodkl'fk. 



CONTENTS OF LECTURE 1. 



Introduction — Contrast of Forty Years Ago — First exploration of this 
region — French and Indian possession — ^Fnglish — Organization of our State — 
First suggestions of a Canal — Legislation thereon — Exit Mr. I.o— First Set- 
tlements — Jesse Walker — Tames Walker and his mills — Other First Settlers 
atPlaintield — On HickoryCreek — The old Saw-Mill — First Ball in the county 
— First Settlers in this township — Norman's mill — First cabin — Sac trail- 
First Settlers in Jackson, Reed's, Troutman's and Starr's Groves — Yankee 
Settlement — Hadley — Gooding's Grove — Lockport— Frankfort — First Church 
organized in county — Father Beggs' Stations — Personal notices — First Set- 
tlers on East Dupage — Channahon — Troy — Forked Creek — Twelve Mile Grove 
etc., etc.— Personal notices — Black Hawk War — First Settlement of Joliet — 
Charles Reed — McKee and his mill — Dr. Bowen — James B. Campbell— M. 
H. Demmond — List of Settlers in 1834 — Arrivals in 1835 — in 1836 — Where we 
went for our mail in 1834-5 — PostoflBce in Joliet — A letter in the wrong hands 
— First Minister — First Church — First Fourth of July — First Wedding — 
Birth — Divorce — First Meeting House — County set off^First election — Land 
fever — First visit to Chicago — Judge Caton — An amateur mail carrier — First 
Stone Block — Ball — No-bridge era — Incidents — Bridges built — Carried away 
— Incidents — New Year's Calls — Taxes — A Lockport Justice— A case for 
Bergh — Dr. Comstock — Conclusion. 



LECTURE I. 



DELIVERED AT THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, IN 
JOLIET, DECEMBER 17th, 1873. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It seems to be a characteristic of all great states and 
great cities, that when they have arrived at a period of assured 
prosperity, and their importance has come to be fully recognized, 
that they begin to inquire into the beginnings of their history, and 
to ask : "Under what circumstances, and by what men, were the 
foundations laid ?" 

Hence, Rome had her story of Romulus and Remus ; New 
York, the chronicles of the veracious Knickerbocker ; and the 
sons of New England never tire of the story of the Mayflower. 

It is not strange, then, that this Historical Society should wish 
to collect and preserve some record of the early days of JOLIET 
and Will County, and to ask for the names of those who first 
trod in the retreating steps of the red man. This evening's lec- 
ture is an attempt to answer, as far as may be, these inquiries. It 
is, of course, an imperfect record ; yet it is the result of consider- 
able inquiry. In one respect I labor under a great disadvantage. 
There are many still living — perhaps some here present — who 
know as much as I do about the matter, and hence I dare* not 
avail myself of the usual resource of the annalist, and draw upon 



6 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

niv fancy for the embellishment of the few meagre facts. You 
must, therefore, expect only a dry detail. 

One other thing eml)arrasses me. I shall be obliged to speak 
often in the first person singular — a thing which is disagreeable to 
a modest man — and I may occasionally seem to make myself the 
hero of my own story. But let it be charitably considered ; this 
is my only chance to get into history ! 

Deidrich Knickerbocker, in his history of New York, begins 
M'ith the creation of the world. I shall not go back as far as this, 
although I feel that the importance of my subject would justify 
me in going back to the flood, or the dispersion of Babel, did time 
permit. 

Our story, then, will be for the most part, one of Forty Years 
Ago. Forty Years! How brief seems the period ! It is indeed 
but a small fragment of the ages, and yet how great have been the 
changes, especially in Northern Illinois, which forty years have 
brought? Forty years ago, Chicago was little more than a trading 
and military post on the outskirts of civilization. Forty years ago, 
the Indian still lingered up and down these streams and groves, 
loath to leave the beautiful land he loved so well, and the bottoms 
where his squaw cultivated the maize, while he pursued the deer 
over the prairies, or trapped the mink and the otter along the 
streams. Forty years ago, although the "gorgeous surroundings " 
were here, Joliet was not even a dream. How much, too, of what 
we now consider indispensable to our comfort, has come into use 
within this brief period. Forty years ago, there was not fifty miles 
of railroad in the United States. Forty years ago, the telegraph 
was still sleeping, coiled up in the brain of Morse. California was 
only known as the name of a Mexican territory : and the Sacra- 
mento, the Colorado and the Oregon, 

" heard no sound, 

Save their own dashings," — 

and the ledges and gulches of the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky 
Mountains were unvexed by the pick of the miner. Forty years 
ao'o, no one had " struck oil," and the reaper and the sewing ma- 
chine had not been invented. Forty years ago " crinoline " had 



JoUef and Will County, Forty Yeai's Ago. 7 

not been introduced, and ten yards of calico was good enough, and 
ample enough, to cover the fair forms of our wives and daughters ! 
With this climax, I come back to my subject! 

In the 17th century, while France held possession of Canada 
and the Lakes, and disputed with England the possession of the 
entire north and west, the Jesuit Missionaries under the protection 
of France, and animated by the same zeal and self-sacrifice which 
has shed such lustre upon that society in China, India and Japan, 
accompanied the explorer and the trader, and in some instances 
preceded them, cheerfully confronting hardships, cruelty and death, 
in upholding before the red man the symbol of the cross. Many 
are the names, hardly less famous than that of Xavier, that adorn the 
records of French exploration in the northwest. Conspicuous 
among these is that of James Marquette, who, accompanied by 
a trader of the name of Louis Joliet, in 1673, (just two hundred 
years ago the past summer), with five countrymen, pushed their 
canoes out from the head of Green Bay, up the Fox river to the 
divide which separates it from the Wisconsin, crossing which, they 
embark upon the latter in pursuit o-f that great river, which west- 
ern Indians had told them, flowed somewhere at the west. In due 
time their voyage is successful, and they pass into the Mississippi, 
and float down its ample bosom as far as the Arkansas. Returning, 
they enter the Illinois. A tribe of Indians of that name occupy 
its banks, and invite Marquette to remain among them, but he 
returns with Joliet to Chicago, and there tarries for a time to preach 
the gospel to the Miamas, a tribe which then dwelt about that 
locality. Tradition says that Marquette and Joliet encamped 
upon the mound just below the city. However this may 
be, it, as well as that widening of the river just below, which we 
call a lake, and also the stream which we call Hickory Creek, were 
baptized with the name of Joliet. A few years subsequently. 
La Salle and Hennepin crossed the short portage between the St. 
Joseph and Kankakee, in Indiana, and passed down into the Illi- 
nois as far as Peoria, where a trading and missionary post were 
established, and a fort was built, named by La Salle, Oreve Cceur, 
from the hardships and disappointments of the enterprise. This 



8 Joliet and Will County, Forty Yearn Ai/o. 

point has a history of much interest, and was known in early 
times as Fort Clark. 

And here, for a hundred years, the French and Indians, who 
seem to have taken kindly to each other, held possession of this 
region. Of this period little is known, and therefore it is a rich 
jfield in which the poet and romancist may weave his tales and 
idyls. No doubt Joliet had its Hiawathas and Minnehahas. Per- 
haps upon this very spot many a dusky wife or maiden has broid- 
ered the moccasins, or wove the Avampum belt for the husband or 
Jover, absent upon the chase or the war path. But our business is 
with sober history, and we leave romance to Capt. Phelps. 

But it was not the design of Providence that this country 
should remain in the hands of France. Another type of civiliza- 
tion, and another type of Christianity, was to come into the perma- 
nent possession of the lakes, and streams, and jirairies of the 
northwest. 

The peace of Paris, in 1763, terminated the rule of France; 
and, although for years many of the explorers, traders and mis- 
sionaries remained, so that at the time of the admission of this 
State in 1818, it was estimated that there were within its limits 
two thousand of their descendants, now, there is nothing but a few 
names on different localities to remind us of French possession. 

By the treaty of 1833, at Chicago, the red men surrendered 
their last claim to these fair lands; and in 1835, to the number of 
five thousand, they a&sembled at Chicago to receive their annuity — 
dance their last war dance in Illinois, and take up their march for 
new hunting grounds on the far Missouri. 

At the admission of this State in 1818, it was almost an entire 
wilderness north of Alton and Edwardsville; yet Shadrach Bond, 
the first governor, in his first message, recommended a canal con- 
necting Lake Michigan with the Illinois. The project had been 
suggested in 1814, during the war, in Niles' Register. In 1821, 
an appropriation of ten thousand dollare was voted for a survey, 
which was made, and the project was pronounced eminently prac- 
ticable. In 1826, coiBgress made the magnificent donation of three 
hundred thousand acres of land for its construction, being every 
alternate section in a strip ten miles wide, along the route. In 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 9 

1829, the general assembly created a board of canal commissioners, 
and authorized them to sell lands; and under this act the title to 
some lands in this vicinity was obtained. Fortunately, however, 
they were soon withdrawn from market. In 1834-5, an act was 
passed creating a new canal board, and authorizing the governor 
to negotiate bonds, pledging the canal lands for their redemption. 
But it was not until at a special session in 1835, Avhen, through 
the active exertions of Col. Strode, of Galena, who, as a senator, at 
that time represented all that part of the state north of, and inclu- 
ding Peoria, the act was so amended as to pledge the credit of the 
state, that the bonds could be negotiated. This was done by Gov. 
Duncan, in 1836, and in the same year preparatory operations were 
commenced. 

Meanwhile, stimulated by this canal project, and by the survey 
and bringing into market of the lands of the United States and 
the granting of pre-emption rights, as well as by the beauty^ and 
fertility of the country, emigration had set in toward this region, 
some of the earliest eiforts of which I now proceed to detail. 

We assign to the Rev. Jf:.ssp: Walker the honor of being the 
first white settler within the present bounds of Will county, although 
it might admit of question whether an itinerant preacher of the 
Methodist church could properly be called a settler. Jesse Walker 
was one of the early pioneers of Methodist Christianity in Illinois. 
He was born in the state of Virginia in 1766, twenty-five years 
before the death of Wesley. He joined the church when twenty 
years of age, and entered the ministry on probation in 1804. He 
had married the daughter of a wealthy planter, who was an heir 
to much property in slaves. These she manumitted, and chose to 
suffer affliction with the people of God, and as the wife of a jNIetli- 
odist preacher, rather than enjoy the ease and plenty which would 
bo secured bv the sweat of the slave. In 1806, he accompanied 
Wm. McKendree (afterwards bishop) to Illinois, then a part of 
Indiana territory, to look at the country. They were highly 
pleased with it; and at the next meeting of conference were both 
appointed to a circuit Mathin its bounds. 

Walker returned from this conference to his family, arriving 
about noon — commenced immediately to prepare for the journey, 



10 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

and by ten o'clock the next day, he and his family were on their 
way. The journey had to be made on horseback, and four horses 
were required — one for himself, one for his wife and youngest 
daughter, and one for his oldest daughter, a girl of sixteen, while 
the fourth carried the stock of books, which was part of the outfit 
of a Methodist preacher, the sale of which aided in ekeing out their 
scanty salary. Of course they could carry no " Saratoga trunks." 
Nor was there any need, for their wardrobe was confined to the one 
suit, beside that they wore, which was spun and wove by the mother 
and daughter. And yet there was no complaint of "nothing to 
wear ! " 

Jesse Walker became an able and efficient preacher of Meth- 
odist Christianity in Illinois, although he had received but a very 
limited education. In 1821, we find him reporting to conference 
in refcpect to his labors as a missionary among the Indians, and it 
was in this capacity that he came to the vicinity of Plainfield in 
1826, where there was then, and for several years subsequently, an 
Indian village. In 1827 he was superintendent of Fox River 
Mission. He is said to have held the first camp meeting in the 
state, and the first quarterly meeting in Chicago, and also to have 
preached the first protestant sermon in St. Louis. In 1829 he had 
charge of the Des Plaines Mission, and formed the first class at 
Walker's Grove. 

Many of these facts I have gathered from Mrs. D. C. Searles, of 
Troy township, who is a grand-daughter of Jesse Walker, and daugh- 
ter of James Walker. I am also indebted to the book of " Father 
Beggs" for some of the incidents of his early life. He died in 
1835, at the age of 69. Many valuable manuscripts left by Jesse 
Walker were in possession of Mrs. Searles, but they were burned 
a few years since, with the house of Mr. Searles. 

He was accompanied in his journey to Plainfield, or, rather, 
WalUer's Grove, as the beautiful grove was subsequently called, 
about one mile south of the present village of Plainfield, by his 
son-in-law, James Walker, a Tennessean, then from Ottawa, of 
which he was one of the earliest settlers. James Walker did not at 
that time remain, but returned to Walker's Grove in March, 1830, 
and made a permanent settlement. He brought with him from- 



Joliet and. Will County, Forty Years Ago. 11 

Ottawa a horse power mill, which he set up, and proceeded at once 
to construct both a saw and grist mill on the Dupage. The grist 
mill was destroyed by a flood in 1837 or 1838. At this saw mill 
the lumber was sawed of which a Mr. Peck built the first frame 
house in Chicago, upon the southeast corner of La Salle and South 
Water streets, which lot had cost him eighty dollars. Reuben 
Flagg, named below, hauled the lumber to Chicago. Jas. AYalker 
was a prominent man in the early history of our county, and I 
shall have occasion to mention his name again. He was one of 
our first representatives in the legislature. 

Another Methodist preacher, S. R. Beggs, was also identified 
with the early history of Plainfield, and of the Methodist church 
in Will county, who settled on section sixteen of that township in 
1831. Father Beggs is well known in Will county, and still sur- 
vives, enjoying the honored old age promised to the servants of 
•God. 

In 1829, a Frenchman by the name of Vetel Yerraette, settled 
in the same vicinity. Another importation was made to Chicago 
from Plainfield in the year 1832, when Father Beggs held his first 
quarterly meeting at Chicago. Timothy B. Clark (named below) 
took an ox team loaded with provisions to Chicago, to meet the ex- 
traoi'dinary demand which would be made upon the provision 
market of Chicago by a few extra Methodists ! 

In the summer of 1830, Mr. Reuben Flagg left Vermont with 
his fiimily, and after a journey of two months they arrived in the 
same vicinity on the 9th day of July. Passing through Chicago, 
they found it a village of about a dozen log houses, and on the 
route down passed two log cabins on the Des Plaines. He found on 
his arrival at Plainfield, besides the families of Walker and Ver- 
mette, already named, two others, those of Timothy B. Clark and 
Thomas Covel, who had come in the same spring from New Eng- 
land. From Detroit, Mr. Flagg was accompanied by Jedediah 
Wooley, sr., who bought out the claim of the Frenchman, Ver- 
mette, who left for pastures new. 

These facts are gathered from a letter of Mr. Flagg's, written 
to H. N. Marsh, Esq., in 1851. Mr. Flagg also states thaf? he 
knew of no other settlers in the county at that time, except three 



12 Joliet and Will County Forty Years Ago. 

families on Hickory Creek, Mr. Rice, Mr. Brown and Mr. Ker- 
cheval, and that the nearest white settler on the west was at Dixon's 
Ferry. We also gather from this letter, that the first white child 
born in Will county was his daughter^ Saraanthe E., born Septem- 
ber 9th, 1830. We owe an apology for presuming to tell a lady's 
age — but the interest of this history demands it. 

To this settlement was added, Wm. Bradford, John Shutliff, 
David, Chester and Enoch Smith, in 1832. Chester Ingersoll^ 
James Gilson, Oliver Goss, Dea. Goodhue, Hardy Metcalf, Benj. 
Shutliff, Jason Flanders, John Bill, W. W. Wattles, Robert W. 
Chapman and others, soon after the close of the Sac war. The 
village of Plainfield was laid off by Chester Ingersoll in August,. 
1834. 

We pass now to the settlement on Hickory Creek. The com- 
piler of the new "Combination Map of Will County," quotes a 
letter from a Mr. W. R. Rice, in which he says : "In June, 1829, 
Miller Ainsley, William Rice and myself, left Fountain county, 
Indiana, to look at the far west. We struck the Iroquois, which 
we followed to the Kankakee, keeping down the latter to the Des 
Plaines, up which we went until we reached Hickory Creek, where 
we found a Mr. Brown, and old Col. Sayer, living in an old Indian 
bark shanty, near where Dr. Allen's house now stands, and about 
eighty rods west, across the creek, was an old Mr. Friend, who 
had the body of a log cabin up." These statements are no doubt 
reliable. I will add, that the Mr. Brown spoken of, die.l soon 
after, in November, 1830, and was buried on the Davidson firm — 
probably the first burial of a white person in Will county. Col. 
Sayer, above named, built a saw mill on the north side of the 
creek from where the red mill now stands, and Mr. Mansfield 
Wheeler, who came in the fall of 1833, went into partnership 
with him. At this mill was sawed the lumber of which the first 
frame houses in Joliet were built. 

To this Hickory Creek settlement were added in 1830 : Mr. 
Lewis Kercheval and son, William Rice, sr., John Gougar, Michael 
Runyon, Jerrod Runyon and James Emmett. In 1831, John and 
Joseph Norman, Aaron Ware, Thomas and Abram Francis, Isaac 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 13 

Pence and Samuel Pence. In 1832, Cornelius C. Van Home, John 
Stitts, Peter Watkins and his two sons, William Gougar and sons, 
and Joseph, Alfred and James Johnson. The Johnsons located 
on Spring Creek, in the edge of Yankee Settlement To these 
were added in 1833, John M., Isaac and Milton Reynolds, Judge 
Davidson and Matthew Van Home. Henry Higginbotham came 
in 1834, and bought out Col. Sayer, and the saw mill iirm became 
Wheeler & Higginbotham. 

C C. Van Home was, in early times, one of the most promi- 
nent men in all the region. . He was postmaster and justice of the 
peace, and transacted the business of the early settlers, and aided 
them in procuring pre-emptions. He was afterwards our first 
mayor under the present city charter. 

Mrs. Kinzie, in her " Waubun," gives an account of a ball on 
Hickory Creek, (probably at Kercheval's), in 1831, at which 
three of the^we single gentlemen then residing at Chicago were 
present. The ball commenced at two p. m., after a hospitable 
dinner, and lasted until the next morning. I su])posethe Chicago 
gentlemen were better dressed, and could even then put on " city 
airs and style," — at any rate, they had the smiles of the " belles '* 
of Hickory and the other precincts, and the native beaux had to 
take back seats. This, of course, highly gratified the Chicago 
gents; but their satisfaction was dampened when, in the early 
dawn, they brought out their fine horses to return, and found that 
during the night, all three had lost their manes and tails ! 

About the same time another settlement was made, mostly on 
the south side of Hickory, in this townshiji. Robert Stevens and 
David Maggard made claims in 1830, and came with their fami- 
lies in 1831. Robert Stephens located on the well-known Ste- 
phen's place, and David Maggard on the Bluff, about opposite the 
rolling mills. Philip Scott, William Bilsland, Major Cook and 
father, Daniel Robb, Jesse Cook, Reason Zarley and Benj. Mag- 
gard, also came in 1831. Seth Scott and Aaron Moore, in 1832. 
William Hadsell, in 1833. Joseph and Jacob Zumalt, in 1834. 
Reason Zarley, above named, was one of our earliest J. P.'s, and 
a prominent and influential man, and it is to him that our city is 
2 



14 Joliet and Will County^ Forty Yearn A(jo. 

indebted for a city clerk, and two editors, who know how to run a 
reliable democratic news^paper! David Maggard built the first 
house within the present city limits. 

The old Sac trail divideo somewhere near the cemetery, and 
one branch crossed at a ford a little below the presentj tannery, and 
passed up the bluif, through a ravine, and on west. The house of 
Maggard was on the edge of this ravine, and was standing not 
many years since. The other branch of the trail crossed at the 
ford just beloW the island, and passed on to Ottawa. This trail 
was a well-worn path, made by the Indians in their annual jour- 
neys from the west to Fort Maiden, in Canada, to receive the 
presents which it was the cunning policy of the English govern- 
ment to continue to give them long after our independence. The 
fruit of this policy was seen in the war of 1812, in the massacre at 
Chicago, and other barbarities. 

John Norman built a mill on this river, at the head of an island 
M'hich took his name, just above the penitentiary. He built a dam 
across one branch, which threw the current into the other, in which 
he placed his wheel, while the shaft at the other end connected with 
the mill-gearing in a log mill. This mill, which is said to have 
had the tremendous capacity of twelve or fifteen bushels of corn 
in twenty-four hours, and which drov^e such a brisk opposition to 
the mills of Rochester, and the Wabash, was projected and com- 
pleted without any municipal aid! I suppose that this mode of 
making the poor contribute to the capital of the rich, was not then 
devised. I remember visiting this mill in 1834. The island was 
.then quite a romantic spot, being covered with a heavy growth of 
timber. The digging of the canal has almost obliterated the 
locality. 

In the edges of the timber, lying along ike Des Plaines and 
Jackson Creeks, and in the groves known as Jackson's, Reed's, 
Starr's and Trout man's, settlements were early made, Chas. Reed, 
Joseph Shoemaker and Wesley Jenkins, settled in Reed's grove in 
1831. John and Thomas Coon, the two Kirkpatricks, Thomas 
Underwood, Eli Shoemaker, Charles Lougmire, James Hemphill, 
Peter Eib and sons, Archibald Crowl, Henry and Lewis Linebar- 



Jollel anrl Will County, Forty Years Ago. 15 

ger, Daniel Haight, John and Samuel Catron, Theopliilus and 
Robert Watkius, settled in some one or other of these groves iu 
1831-2-3; and Benjamin and Joseph Shanks, Smith Johnson, 
John Brown, George Young, Peter Brown and son, and U. J. Boy- 
Ian, in 1833-4. 

To the credit of Jackson grove settlement it ought to be men- 
tioned, that they built a school house as early as 1833, and Henry 
Watkins, of the Hickory Creek settlement, taught the same. 

We have mentioned "the Johnsons" as settling on Spring 
Creek, in the edge of Yankee Settlement. They were " Hoosiers," 
in the language of that day ; but most of the settlers in Homer 
were from the east, and it was early called •' Yankee Settlement." 

In the summer of 1831, Holder Sisson, a resident of Chattau- 
que county, N. Y., wlio had previously visited the west, with his 
family, and Selah Lanfear and Orrin Stevens, with their families, 
from the same county, came around the lakes in a schooner, and 
after a somewhat stormy passage, landed at the obscure port of 
Chicago, in the latter part of July. Harry Boardman, who settled 
in East Dupage, came in the same vessel. After a short stay in 
Chicago, they came to Yankee Settlement, made "claims," and 
commenced improvements, and built log cabins. They found 
already there, the families of Armstead Runyon, Edward Poor, 
and Benjamin Butterfield. I think Edward Poor was the first 
settler in this neighborhood. His is the first name that occurs upon 
our county records, as transcribed from Cook county, of which we 
were then a part. 

The following are the names of other settlers in those localities 
now included in the town of Homer, and that part of Lockport 
east of the river, and which were known in early days as " Yankee 
Settlement," Gooding's Grove and Had ley: Before the Sac war, 
Jas. Richie, James Glover, Abijah Watson, John Pettyjohn, Wm. 
McGaifery, Peter Polly, Joseph McCune, Daniel Mack, John 

Blackstone, Nathaniel Weeks, William Ashing, Goodenow, 

Joseph Cox, Dick Boilvin and Uriah Wentworth. Some of these 
persons did not return after the "stampede" occasioned by the 



16 JoUet and Will Comity, Forty Years Ago. 

Sac war. Goodenow, Potly aud McCune, on their return, settled 
in other localities in the county. 

The following persons settled in the localities named, soon after 
the war, say in the years 1832-3 and 4: Thomas Smith, Eben 
Beach, Charles M. Grey, George Grey, Orange Chauncy, Levi 
Partwell, Jiroh Rowley and sons, W. H. Frazier, Alanson 
Granger, Addison Collins, Horace Messinger, John Lane, Lucius 
Case, H. S. Mason, Dr. Moses Porter, Abram Snapp, Deacon Wil- 
liams, Benjamin Weaver, Hiram Rowley, Levi Savage, 1j. C. 
Chamberliii, Frederick CoUins, William Bandle, Samuel Ander- 
son, John Griswold, Comstock Hanford, Nathan Hopkins, John 
Fitzsimmons, Cyrus Cross, Andrew Frank, Aaron Hopkins, Rev. 
Mr. Ambrose and Lyman Cross. 

The following persons settled in "Gooding's Grove," aud gave 
the name to the locality: Deacon James Gooding and his three sons, 
James Gooding, Jr., William Gooding and Jasper A. Gooding, 
aud his nephew, Charles Gooding, in 1832-3. 

A Rev. Mr. Kirov was also an early settler, and had charge of 
a Presbyterian church in Hadley, organized by Rev. Jeremiah 
Porter, the pioneer of the American Home Mission Society in the 
northwest. This, I think, was, exclusive of the " classes " formed 
by itinerant preachers of the Methodist church, the first church 
oi'ganized in Will county. 

A Mr. Freeman, also organized a Baptist church in Yankee 
Settlement about the same time, of sixteen members. Yankee Set- 
tlement was also a station of Father Beggs' in 1833, together with 
Walker's Grove, East Dupage, Hickory Creek and Reed's Grove. 

John Lane was famous in the early days as a manufacturer of 
breaking plows. Addison Collins was, at one time, our county 
surveyor, and also represented us in the General Assembly. 

John Blackstone, generally known as Judge Blackstone, was a 
man of property and influence. He was the first justice of the 
peace in Yankee Settlement. Judge Caton remembers going down 
there from Chicago to try a suit before him in 1833, which was 
probably the first law suit in the county. 

Jiroh Rowly, generally known as Capt. Rowly, was a promin- 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 17 

ent man in the early history of our county. He had formerly been 
a contractor on the Erie canal, having built the great embankment 
near Rochester. While engaged in this job, Gov. Clinton passed 
over the route to look after its interests, and visited the jol) of 
Rowley, about which he had a good deal of anxiety, as it was a 
heavy and difficult work. While the Governor was looking on 
with some gentlemen visitors, Rowley spoke pretty sharply to him 
and his friends, telling them to get out of the way. Governor 
Clinton, instead of being offended, remarked to his friends, that 
he should go home with his mind at ease about the job, as Capt. 
Rowley evidently "meant business." 

William Gooding (named in the above list) was subsequently 
well known as the able and efficient engineer-in-chief of our canal. 

Yankee Settlement was especially famous among the boys of 
1835-6, as a good place to go to see the girls. I presume it still is! 

Holder Sisson, above named, who was one of the first county 
commissioners of this county, settled on the Hanford place, in the 
present town of Lock})ort, in 1831, and afterwards moved across 
the river, and located on, or under, the western bluff. Lyman 
Havvley and sons, Justin Taylor, Thomas and Harvey Reed, and 
William Rogers, settled on the same side in 1831-2 and 3. It is 
said that Butterfield, whose name was mentioned in the Yankee 
Settlement list, built the first house within the present township 
of Lockport, and that a Mr. Everden built the first log house on the 
site of the present city, in 1831, which he sold to Armstead 
Runyon, who laid out the first town plat in 1836, now called North 
Lockport, but formerly called Runyon's Town. The site on which 
most of the present city is now located, was laid out by the canal 
commissioners, in 1837, and the good taste of the engineer-in-chief 
is apparent in its \vide and beautiful streets. West Lockport was 
laid out by William Rogers, Lyman Hawley, William Gooding 
and E. S. Prescott, who also built the stone mill, in 1836. West 
Locicport, at one time, was the most flourishing part of the town. 

In the upper Hickory Creek timber, in what is now known as 
the town of Frankfort, it is said that a Mr. Osborn settled as early 
as 1828, but finding it rather lonesome, he returned to the State of 



18 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

Indiana. William Moore, Robert WilliamSj John iVIcGoveny and 
sons, John McDeed, and a Mr. Ghost, came in 1831. Daniel 
Lambert, John Duncan, James Troutman and Hiram W^ood, in 
1832. Allen and Lysander Denny, Ambrose Doty, Charles Mar- 
shall, Francis Owen, Eliphalet Atkins, Samuel Haven and Josiah 
Holden, in 1834 or 5. 

A settlement was made on the east branch of the Dupage as 
early as 1830, by Pierce Hawley, Stephen J. and Willaid Scott, 
and Ralph Stowell. In 1831, it was increased by the coming of 
Israel Blodgett, Robert Strong, John Dudley, Harry Boardman, 
and Seth Westcott; and 1832, l)y Jonathan Royce, Isaac Scarritt, 
Lester Peet, Simon Ferrill and John Barber; and in 1833 and 4, 
Samuel Goodrich, Andrew Godfrey, Harry and Philip Lord, Sam- 
uel Whallen and William Smith. 

Isaac Scarritt was a Methodist itinerant preacher, a cotempo- 
rary of Beggs and Walker, and succeeded Walker in 1828, as 
Superintendent of Fox River Mission. Samuel Whallon was 
county commissioner in the years 1841-2-3, and has lately died at 
the ripe age of 94. Col. Smith, will be well remembered as one of 
the prominent residents of this city. 

Mrs. Kinzie, in "Waubun," speaks of stopping at Hawley's 
over night, alter a long exposure in traveling from Fort Winne- 
bago to Chicago, in the winter of 1831. A brother of Hawley's, 
a Methodist preacher, was killed by the Indians, near his place, in 
1832, after cruel torture. 

In that part of tiie town of Channahon which lies east of the 
Des Plaines river, Joseph McCune, recently deceased, settled in 
1832, also John Troutman, the same year, and Robert Thorn- 
berg and sons, in 1833. On the river, Seymour Treat and Dr. 
Treat, his son, settled in 1833, and built a grist-mill at the tbot of 
an island which took their name. 

The following persons settled in that part of the town which 
lies between the Des Plaine and Dupage, in the years 1832-3-4: 
Isaac Jessup, William E. Peck, H. D. Risley, Peter McCowan. 
Capt. Willard, Michael Morehouse, Jedediah and Walter Emes, 
Joseph N. Fryer, Ira Knapp, Hosea Buell, George and Russelt 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 19 

Trjon, Uncle "Boat" Sclierinerhorn and his two son.s, Peter and 
Jacob B. and John Ward; and in 1835, Joseph and Dr. Lewis, 
Isaac and Burke Van Alstine, and, under the Fifteenth Amend- 
ment, we must not omit to mention " Nigger Dick." 

This locality was a favorite one of the Indians. They had a 
village there at one time, and the traces of their cultivation could 
be seen there in 1835, and the mounds where they buried their 
dead. I believe they cultivated corn there as late as 1834. It is 
said the squaws made very neat cultivators. There used to be the 
grave of an Indian near Treat's, in which the body was partly out 
of the ground, in a sitting posture, and surrounded by rails. This 
wiis supposed to be the grave of a prominent man, as they took 
great pains to visit it when going up and down the river. 

I remember having seen, north of Joliet, just this side of the 
Sanger farm, in 1834 or 5, the grave of an Indian child, buried in 
the top of a tree — if one may be allowed so grave a bull. The 
body was placed in two rough slabs, hollowed out and fastened 
together, and to the tree, by strips of bark. I do not know what 
the Indian's idea was in thus disposing of an infant's body, but I 
can fimcy it a dim reflection from the memorable words of our 
Savior, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." As the spirit of 
the child had taken its flight to the skies, they would fain place 
the deserted casket as near to it as possible ! 

The village of Channahon was laid out by the Canal Trustees, 
by whom it was named Stiifton, after one of their number. 
Through the influence of Judge Peck it was changed to Channa- 
hon — an Indian word, which means, the meeting of the waters — a 
beautiful and appropriate name, and I presume the change has 
been no material damage to W. H. Swift, Esq. Judge Peck was a 
prominent man in our county, a commissioner in the years 1839 to 
1842. J. B. Schennerhorn was also a county commissioner in the 
years 1848 and 9. 

It is generally supposed that Troy was first settled by the Irish, 
in canal times, but such was not the fact. A little north of Channa- 
hon, on the Dupage, in the present town of Troy, Jedediah Woolley, 
Jr., settled in 1831 , and commenced building a mill, which, owing 



20 Joliet and Will County Forty Years Ago. 

to the war, was uot completed until 1833. Two men of the name 
of Rexford, also settled in that locality, and rented Woolley's mill. 
John Van Rij^er and sons, and a Mr. Fleming and Carey Thorn- 
ton, were early settlers in this vicinity. 

Just west of the Joliet Mound, Andrew and Marshall King 
settled in 1833 or 4. Edward and Ephraira Perkins settled in 
Five Mile Grove, in 1833. Joseph Lawton and Samuel Holcomb 
at Twelve Mile Grove, in 1832. 

On Forked Creek, in territory which would now be included 
in the towns of Florence, Wesley and Wilmington, John Fra- 
zier, Hamilton Keeney, John Williams, Robert Kilpatrick, James 
Kelly, James Jordan, John Howel and George Beckwith, settled 
in 1834, and Joseph Hadsall and William Goodwin in 1835. 

There were also settlements farther up the Kankakee river, 
but as they are not included in the present limits of the county, 
we make no record of them, although one of our first county com- 
missioners, Thomas Durham, was from Bourbonnais' Grove. 

After the breaking out of what is known as the Black Hawk 
War, in the spring of 1832, there was great alarm felt by the set- 
tlers in this region. Although the seat of war was to the west and 
north, on Rock river, and although the Indians in this immediate 
vicinity claimed to be friendly, or neutral, yet none could tell how 
soon the war wlioop would be heard on the Dupage and the Des 
Plaine, or how much dependence could be placed upon Pottawat- 
tamie friendship. That their fears were not without reason, appears 
from the massacre on Indian Creek, about fifteen miles above Ot- 
tawa, on the 21st of May, where the settlers belonging to three 
families, to the number of fifteen, men, women and children, were 
suddenly assailed by a band of Sacs, and butchered with all the 
usual barbarities of Indian warfare. One boy escaped and carried 
the news to Ottawa; and two girls, named Sylva and Rachael Hall, 
fifteen and seventeen years of age, were carried oif and held for 
ransom. As we shall see, by and by, the history of Joliet is closely 
connected with this event. 

The settlers at Walker's Grove, with some who had fled from 
Fox River, to the number of one hundred and twenty-five, col- 



Joliet and WUl County, Forty Years Ago. 21 

lected at the house of "'Father Beggs/' on section 16, which seemed 
most favorably located for defence, and this they fortified by pulling 
down the log sheds and stables, and forming a barricade with the 
logs. They chose James Walker captain, and resolved upon a 
vigorous defence. They collected all the weapons which could be 
of use, such as hoes, forks, axes and guns, and melted their pewter 
spoons and plates into bullets. After a while, they concluded that 
as they had but four available guns, the better part of valor was 
discretion, and they withdrew to Chicago for a while, where, from 
the over-crowded state of the fort, they suffered nearly as much 
as from their fears of the Indians. The settlers in Yankee Settle- 
ment, and other localities, also fled to Chicago for protection. The 
alarm was given to the settlers here by Hiram Pearson, of Chicago, 
and Dan'l Mack, of Hadley, who had started for Danville, and met 
refugees from the west, near the Des Plaine river. They returned 
at once and gave the alarm, and the families were gathered together 
and went to Chicago. While there, they organized a company of 
twenty-five, aud chose Holder Sisson, from the Yankee settlement, 
captain. This company went out on a scout, to ascertaiu 
whether there were any Indians in the vicinity. They stayed the 
first night at Lawton's, on the Des Plaiues; went thence to Naper- 
ville and Walker's Grove, stopping the second night at Fort Beggs. 
They proceeded to Holdeman's Grove, where they met a company 
from Ottawa, and with them went to the scene of the massacre on 
Indian Creek, where 'they found and buried the mutilated bodies, 
fifteen in number, including six children. They then went to 
Ottawa, where they found the remains of a regiment which had 
retreated from the aifair at Stillman's Run. They then returned 
over the same route to Chicago. On their return they found the 
body of a Mr. Payne, a Dunkard preacher, who had been mur- 
dered by the Indians — his long beard being no protection. 

After a few weeks, the settlers from Yankee Settlement re- 
turned, and built a fort on the Sisson or Hanford place; and 
also most of those from Walker's Grove returned to Fort Besfffs. 

When Scott arrived at Chicago, bringing the cholera with him — 

a foe more dreaded then than even the savage Indian — there was 

almost as great a stampede from Chicago to the country, as there 
3 



22 Joliet and Will County, Forty Yearf< Ago- 

had been from the country to Chicago. Lanfear and his ox team, 
with others, were pressed into the government service by Scott, 
to take his " impedimenta " to Galena. At this time there was a 
Pottawattamie encampment between Fraction Run and Big Run, 
in Lockport, and remained for two or more years. 

The settlers on Hickory Creek, in Jackson's Grove and neigh- 
boring-localities, and this township, being from Indiana, naturally 
sought safety by flight in that direction. Hearing that the Indians 
were at Walker's Grove, they got their teams ready, and their fam- 
ilies, and sent one of the Normans, in the meantime, to reconnoi- 
tre. He saw some Indians on the prairie near the Lillycash, and 
returned at once and gave the alarm. It was afterwards ascertained 
that they were friendly Pottawattamies, coming to assure the set- 
tlers that there was no danger. But the settlers commenced at 
once to flee toward the Kankakee. 

When gathered together on the prairie there were about seventy 
in number, and about twenty teams, mostly drawn by oxen. Some 
of the men also formed a guard on horseback. Some ludic- 
rous accounts are given of the coolness aud presence of mind dis- 
played by the fugitives. It is related of one from Jackson's Grove, 
that in his haste and confusion he mounted his horse facing the 
wrong way, and his horse being as badly frightened as the rider, 
he could get no chance to change front until he reached the Kan- 
kakee ; and also that he had loaded his horse with supplies of 
bacon, flour and sugar, which he threw overboard, one after the 
other, to increase his speed, and was pulling off his coat when his 
flight was arrested. This story is, I presume, somewhat exagger- 
ated, but if true, he could at least claim the merit of facing the 
enemy ! 

These fugitives met a company of armed men from Indiana, 
who had come out to aid in protecting the settlers, and some returned 
with them. It was this company which built the Ibrt, known in 
early days as " Fort Nonsense," which used to stand Oii the spot 
now occupied by the residence of H. N. Marsh, Esq. I have this 
statement from Mr. Jesse Cook, who was one of the company that 
returned, and assisted in building the fort. Mr. Cook also states, 
that they found on their return to their homes, that the friendly 



Joliet <ind Will County, Forty Years Ago. 23 

Pottawattamies had taken care of the chickens and pigs which they 
left on their flight — such good care that they never saw them again ! 
Robert Stevens and David Maggard also returned, and concealed 
themselves for a while in a cave, a little above town. Most of the 
families returned in the fall and ensuing spring. 

I have now given the names of those who can be considered 
" first settlers " in Will county, as now bounded, so far as I have 
been able to gather them. The rush of immigration in 1835-6, 
was too great to attempt any record of those years. We will come 
now to the history of the first settlement of this city. 

In 1 833, Charles Reed, who has been mentioned as one of the 
first settlers at Reed's Grove, made a claim on the southeast quar- 
ter of section nine, town thirty-five, north range ten, east, and 
built a log house on the same, just below where the National Hotel 
now stands. He also commenced building a dam, and making 
pre[)arations for a mill. It was his design to start his mill on the 
Housier, or Norman plan ; putting his wheel in the race, depend- 
ing on the current for power to drive the machinery. In March, 
1834, James McKee, a Kentuckian, from Jacksonville, bought out 
the claim and improvements of Reed, for the sum of $1,960, 
"which improvements," says the original document, now in my 
possession, " consists of a dam partly made, on the east side of 
the river, a house, some fence, a mill race, and some machinery for 
a mill, both of wood and iron, on the west side of the river." 

McKee proceeded at once to the erection of a mill on an im- 
proved scale, and in the fall of 1834, got help enough together to 
raise, in two days, the heavy oak frame, which still stands just 
above and between the bridges, (one story of it now under water), 
and is used by Charles Ward for storing sash, doors, etc. I had 
the honor of assisting at this raising, and remember it took some 
tall lifting! 

McKee was provided with a state " float," which he laid on 
the quarter section, and thus secured the title to the land. This 
"float," as it was called, was obtained in this way: At the time 
of the attack on Indian Creek, to which allusion has been made, 
all except two girls, of the name of Hall were killed, to the num- 



24 Joliet and Will Oounti/, Forty Years Ago. 

ber of fifteen, as 1 have already stated. These two girls, named 
Sylvia and Rachael, and of the ages of fifteen and seventeen, were 
carried oif by the Indians and held for ransom, which was eifected 
after a while through the agency of a Winnebago Chief. The leg- 
islature of the state, being no doubt- composed of very gallant and 
sympathetic men, donated to each of these girls eighty acres of the 
canal lands. McKee bought the grant to Sylvia of hcM- husband, 
William S. Home, who, it seems, had married her. The patent 
from the state is to Home and his wiff' Sylvia, and they conveyed 
to McKee, December 18th, 1833. To this deed Sylvia makes her 
mark, from which we cDnclude that the schoolmaster had not made 
his appearance at Indian Creek in 1832, and that she married (as 
girls sometimes will) before she had completed her education. It 
is the general impression that James B. Campbell bought the float 
of the other Hall girl, and that he laid it upon the other quarter 
on the east side. But this 1 think is a myth, as the patent is direct 
from the state to Campbell, and for the consideration of one hun- 
dred dollars. Camj)bell was the treasurer of the board of canal 
commissioners, appointed under the act of 1829, and probably got 
his title under that act. Campbell laid his quarter off into town 
h)ts — the original town of Joliet — in 1834, and held a public sale 
of the same on the 18th and 19th days of June. Campbell was 
from Ottawa, and was never a resident of Joliet, he has recentl}^ 
deceased, leaving, it is said, a widow, who by the efforts of her 
attorneys, is disturbing the slumbers of some of our property own- 
ers. At this sale the lots brought from nineteen to one hundred 
and eight dollars. The lots on Jefferson street generally brought 
about fifty dollars. This seems low now, but then Jefferson street 
had no ;^rand sewer! 

Campbell' named his town "J?*&^," being more desirous to 
perpetuate the name of his daughter than that of the French 
explore, and by this name our city was known until changed by 
an act of the legislature in 1845. There are still many who do 
not secia to knaw the origin of the name, or how to spell or pro- 
nounce it. Many spell it with two 'I's,' two 't's,' and a terminal 
*e,' — a great waste of the alphabet — and it is pronounced JoUy-ette. 



Joliet and Will County, Fwty Years Ago. 25 

I presume because we are supposed to get our name from the 
*'jolly" character of the inhabitants. 

Early in March, 1834, Dr. A. W. Bowen, from Herkimer co., 
N. Y., came to this vicinity, and boarded for a time with Lewis 
Kercheval, made a claim on the Luther Woodruff place, and in 
May built a small house on the edge of the slough near where the 
Union School House stands, wJiich he occupied soon after, on the 
arrival of Mrs. Bowen. Dr. Bowen subsequently, in 1835 and 
1836, added East Joliet and Bo wen's addition to the town plat. 
Dr. Bowen was for many years one 6t our most enterprising and 
respected citizens, but has now for some years resided in Wilming- 
ton. 

In the fall of 1833, Charles Clement left New Hampshire and 
came west, through Michigan, following the Sac trail from Niles 
through northern Indiana and Illinois, crossed this river at the 
upper ford, and passed on to the Dupage, and down to Peoria. At 
this time this spot had attracted no attention, and he saw nothing 
except the log house of Maggard, of which I have spoken. Re- 
turning again in the spring of 1834, by way of Walker's Grove, 
he there heard of this point, and that a town was to be built here. 
He came over and found McKee on the ground, engaged in his 
mill enterprise. Thinking that perhaps something might come of 
it, he made a purchase of one acre, lying west of the proposed mill 
yard, for $125. I believe he has never regretted the investment. 
He proceeded to build a house on the spot where Bush's block now 
stands, and which afterwards, with some additions, became the 
famous "American Hotel." His brother, Daniel Clement, and 
his wife, and a Mr. Clark, joined him in May, and they took pos- 
session of the house. Mr. Charles Clement now enjoys the honor 
of being the " oldest inhabitant," and that is better than to be 
Mayor! I have received much assistance from him in making 
up these reminiscences, and if there is anything in them that you 
do n't like — lay it to him ! 

In June, of the same year, M. H. Demmond, from Herkimer 
county, N. Y., in company with George R, Makepeace, on an ex- 



26 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

ploring tour, (iame down from Chicago, and were so well pleased 
with the prospect of Mc'Kee's town, that each purchased one of 
his acres for $ 1 25. They returned to New York, settled up their 
business, and with their families came hither in the latter part of 
September. Miss Murray, a sister of Mrs. Demmond, now Mrs. 
Folts, a young man by the name of Jenney, and myself, accom- 
panied them. The journey occupied us two weeks. From Detroit 
we came through to Niles by stage — a rough and tedious experi- 
ence, the roads being through a new and heavily timbered and 
swampy country, were bad enough. At Niles we hired teams to 
bring us through to " Juliet." As we came on, the roads grew 
much better, as the character of the country grew more rolling. 
But there was but little settlement, and the cabins grew less fre- 
quent as we came west, and the road became a mere trail. But we 
were in no danger of losing our way, for we followed near the 
famous "Sauk trail." We were now confined by no artificial metes 
or bounds — 

" For here the fair savannas know 

No barriers in the bloomy grass, ^ 

Wherever breeze of Heaven may blow, 
Or beam of Heaven may glance, we pass."' 

At long intervals the smoke of a pioneer's cabin under the lee 
of some sheltering grove, gave indication of human settlement. 
It was a lonesome and yet a delightful ride, for the weather was 
fine, and everything was a new experience. The prairies, unlike 
the level monotony of those we had passed in Michigan, remind us 
of the description of our own Bryant, as they 

" stretch in airy undulations far away, 
As if the Ocean, in his gentlest swell, 
Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed 
And motionless, forever." 

The groves, unlike the dense and swampy forests we had toiled 
through, look more like the parks and orchards of some old and 
cultivated land, while at every step flowers strange and beautiful^ 
greet the eye. The prairie-hen starts up from the grass, and from 
the oak openings the antlered deer gazes at us with more of won- 



Joliet and Will Courtly^ Forty Years Ago. 27 

der than of fear. A strange haze mellows the rays of the cloud- 
iess sun, and gentle breezes, untainted by the breath of city or 
hamlet, regale us with the perfume of unshorn fields and count- 
less flowers. 

As we come on toward " Juliet," we see now and then a log 
cabin in the edges of the Hickory timber; pass Van Home's point, 
and the cabin of " Uncle Billy " Gougar, and cross Hickory at 
Sayer & Wheeler's mill. On we press, eager for the first glimpse 
of that "town" of which we have heard so much. We come out 
upon the open valley, through the tall grass of the Spring Creek 
bottoms. We reach the first house, on the edge of a formidable 
looking slough. This is the palatial residence of Dr. Bowen, of 
which we have spoken, at least fourteen feet square. But this is, 
then, but the suburbs of the great city, and we cross the boggy 
slough, tull of rank grass and weeds, and press on. We come into 
the region of upper Chicago street, and there two mansions greet 
the sight. They are those of Thomas Cox and Benj. F. Barker. 
They are not equal to Dr. Raynor's, but then they are human hab- 
itations, and the sight is welcome. We pass on. Coming to the cor- 
ner north of the Central Church, we find another building in process 
of erection, which afterwards became the famous " Juliet Hotel." 
A little farther is another house, on the lot now occupied by Mrs. 
Kinney, built by the brothers Bailey, in which Campbell had held 
his sale. 

Such was the town on the east side of the river. Four new 
but unpretending houses, standing all out doors — not a fence, or 
enclosure of any kind, on a rough and rocky bottom, only here 
and there a scrub oak to relieve the desolation. But we are headed 
for McKee's town, and we pass on in search of the Des Plaines 
river, upon the west side of which, we have heard, it is located. 
Soon we come upon it, a very tame and modest stream, — it seems in 
the dry September, such as we had been used to call a " creek," — 
and we cross it at a ford just below an island, without the slightest 
apprehension of drowning. Coming out and up the western bank; 
we see some men at work on a dam, other men digging a race, and 



28 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

some hewing timber. We find the log house built by Reed, where 
"vre are welcomed with true Kentucky hospitality, by James McKee 
and his wife Sally, Just below the house is a little enclosure, 
"which we take to be a garden, although we find it called a "truck 
patch,^' through which flows a little brook from a beautiful and 
abundant spring, welling up under a rocky and beetling bluff. 
This spring is now changed into a well, some six or eight feet be- 
low the present surface, and its water is dispensed by a vulgar 
pump; all its beauty is gone, but not its usefulness, as it still con- 
tinues to supply " Adam's Ale" freely, to all. Happy those who 
are content with its healthful refreshment, rejecting all human sub- 
stitutes in its vicinity, or elsewhere ! A little to the north we find 
the house built by Clement, where we find the hands at work 
on the mill are boarding, and where we, too, tind a temporary 
home. Among these boarders was Richard Hobbs, familiarly 
known as " Uncle Dick," and who will be well remembered by 
many, and whose sons perpetuate his name among us. A little 
north is another building, which has been erected for Mr. Dem- 
mond, in part of which the family is to live, and in part of which 
a store is to be opened, with the goods on their way around the 
lakes. A little way above the middle bridge we also find a log 
house, just erected by a Mr. Campbell, who sold out the next sum- 
mer to Barton Smith. 

These are all the indications of the future city on the west side. 
We climb up the bluff by way of a gully, which is now Cross 
street, and find still to the west another bluff, which is heavily 
wooded. On the highest part of the first bluff we find the fort 
and palisades, of which mention has been made, and this is the first 
intimation we have had that Juliet is a fortified city. A little to 
the north of this, the bluff is interrupted by a deep woody ravine, 
(the present location of Spring street), which is the outlet to a large 
swamp covering the area between Hickory street and the west 
bluff, and extending up as far as the present breweries. The log 
cabin of Mr. Maggard is so far to the north that we cannot 
see it. 

Such was Joliet as we then saw it, on a late September day in the 



Joliet and Will Countyy Forty Yea7\s Ago. 29 

year 1834. I sat down upon the l>row of the bluif, and "viewed 
the landscape o'er." I confess that I felt a choking sensation in 
my esophagus ! You will not wonder that to a boy just from home, 
and from an old, cultivated and populous village, the prospect of 
passing the winter in such a locality, was anything but cheering. 
To my eyes, which had not been touched by that prophetic vision 
which only an investment of dollars can give, the future city — then 
predicted, now, happily, partially realized — was not discernable, 
and an opportunity to return would have been gratefully accepted. 
In which case, Juliet would have lost one of its tallest citizens, 
and you would have escaped the present infliction. 

In the course of the fall the mill is erected, and also a saw mill 
is built and run by Clement and Clark, and a brisk lumber trade 
is created, for the logs are near by, and "Uncle Sam" does not 
keep watch. Mr. Demmond opens his store, and we take a posi- 
tion as clerk, and make the acquaintance of the people. These 
we find to be of two kinds, Yankees and Hoosiers. All who came 
from any state east of Ohio, are called Yankees; and all who are 
of western or southern origin, and who wear "jeans" clothing, 
and use such phrases as " right smart chance," " powerful weak," 
" ornery," " heap," etc., and to every question or remark, answer 
" which," are called Hoosiers. 

During the winter, Mr. Demmond bought out McKee's quar- 
ter section, except the portions already sold, and the mill and mill 
yard, and immediately surveyed and recorded " West Juliet." 

According to the best of my recollection, refreshed by Dr. 
Bowen and Mr. Clement, the number of those who passed the 
winter of 1834-5, within the present city limits, was less than 
fifty. I give the names as far as I am able. 

A. W. Bowen and wife, Charles Clement, Daniel Clement and 
wife, Thomas H. Blackburn and wife, Thomas Cox and wife, O. 
D. Putnam, Henry Bone and wife, two brothers Baily, Asaph 
Webster and wife, Harlow Webster, George West and wife, N. H, 
Cutter, James McKee and wife, Richard Hobbs, Chas. W. Bran- 
don, M. H, Demmond and wife. Miss Murray, Mr. Campbell and 
wife, Jay Lyons, Eri Dodge and wife, N. H. Clark, D. Maggard, 



30 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

Edw. Perkins, Jas. C. Troutmau, a family named Lumereaux, and 
last, but 710^ least, G. H. Woodruff. These, and their families, are all 
that I can now recall. (Mr. Makepeace and his wife had gone on 
to Fox river). Kev'. J. H. Prentiss, under the auspices of the Am. 
Home Mission Society, visited Juliet during the winter, and finding 
that there were even then heathen enough to justify the step, came 
on the next summer with his family, and established preaching, 
and soon after organized a Presbyterian church — sometime in 1835. 
George West, named in the above list, was a Methodist local 
preacher, and probably preached the first sermon in Juliet. But 
the first organized religious society was, I think, " Christ Church," 
Episcopal, which was organized by Bishop Chase, the 16th day of 
May, 1835. Comstock Hanlord, John Griswold, Miles Rice, Or- 
len Westover, A. W. Bowen, Julia Ann Hanford, Amorette B. 
Griswold, being the original members, all of whom, except Dr. 
Bowen and wife, resided in the adjacent country. 

Some here will remember a little stone building on the lot now 
owned by Mr. Plant, on Broadway, and used as a stable. It was 
pulled down within a year or two. It was in this building that 
Mr. Prentiss preached for a while, until the first school house was 
built, which is still stantling on Hickory street, west of the Catho- 
lic church, now occupied as a residence by Mr. Terrill. This house 
was built by Demmond, McKee, Beaumont, and some others, and 
was used for school and church purposes. 

The first teacher in this school house was John Watkins, who 
had previously taught in Chicago. He is still living in New 
Lenox, nearly blind. He was not, however, the first teacher in 
either place. Mrs. Kinzie tells of one earlier than him in Chicago, 
and the first attempt at a school in Joliet was made by Miss Persis 
Cleveland, now of California, in the old log fort, of which I have 
spoken. 

The Kev. S. R. Beggs, in 1836, was appointed to the Joliet 
Circuit, and commenced the work of building the first Methodist 
church, which was also the first church edifice in Joliet, in 1837. 
This building is now the blacksmith's shop of Rock Island Rail- 
road; and in this year, 1837, the Methodist church of Joliet became 
an organized legal body. 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 31 

The season of 1835 made considerable additions to the embryo 
city. Among them we?-e John L. and Richard L. Wilson, George 
Higley and family, Levi Jenksand family, Archibald Growl, Wra. 
Walters, O. F. Rogers, Rev. J. H. Prentis and family, Abel Gil- 
bert, George Squire and wife, Rodney House and family, William 
A. Chatfield and family, S. W. Boweu, C. C. Pepper, Abijah Cag- 
win and family, a Mr. Boland and his two sons, Ahner and An- 
drevv, H. N. Marsh and wife, Elias Haven and sons, David Rattray, 
James Brodie, Francis Nicholson and wife, W. R. Atwell and 
wife, Allen Pratt, Dr. Curtis Haven, Barton Smith and two sons 
and family, Joel George and wife, Sullivan Demmond, Jonathan 
Barnett, Charles Sayer, J. Beaumont and family, E. M. Daggett, 
E. C. Fellows, Fenner Aldrich, George Howlistou, Asa Rowe, 
Elias Hyde, Dr. Daniel Reed, William Sheriff, S. B. Hopkins, 
Walter Seeley, Edsoa White, O. W. Stillman and John M. Wil- 
son. Several buildings were erected on each side of the river 
during this year, but the exact number cannot be told. Many of 
the new comers livtd for a time in "shanties;" Rev. Mr. Prentiss 
had one on Oneida street, under the bluff. 

I will say a few words here, by way of explanation of what I 
said above in reference to the lumber trade; and also explanatory 
of several other matters to which I shall refer in the course of this 
lecture. 

In the first settlement of this county, the title to the land was 
in the United States, except that which had been granted to the 
state for canal purposes; and also, except every sixteenth section 
in each township, which had been given to the state for school 
purposes. To encourage settlement, persons were allowed to locate 
on any lands not already occupied, to make a claim, and on build- 
ing a cabin and enclosing and cultivating a few acres, they estab- 
lished a "pre-emption right," that is, a right to purchase the land 
in prefereuf^e to all others, at one dollar and a quarter per acre, 
whenever the same should come into market. Settlers were, of 
course, allowed to make use of timber lor building their cabins 
and making their fences. This indulgence on the part of the gov- 
ernment was grossly abused. Every one in those days regarded 
the timber as free plunder, and only took care not to trespass upon 



32 Joliet and Will County, Forty Y^ears Ago. 

a settler's claim. To steal from " Uncle Sam," was regarded then 
(as I fear it still is) as a very venial sin. Persons who had no claim 
as settlers, cut down the timber and hauled it to the mills, and had 
it manufactured into lumber for sale. Nor did they confine them- 
selves to United States' lands, but canal lands and school sections 
were also subject to depredation. The bluifs about our city, and 
also the groves, all over the county, were then covered with a heavy 
growth of full grown timber, mostly oak and black walnut. These 
were, to a great extent, sacrificed to the greed of the trespassers, 
and manufactured into lumber and sold at ten dollars per thousand. 
Great, splendid black walnut trees, the lumber from which would 
now bring one hundred dollars per thousand, were cut down and 
made into common lumber. The saw mills were kept running 
nio-ht and day, and Sundays too. All the woods which we now 
see, are of a subsequent growth. Almost all the buildings erected 
previous to the opening of the canal, were made of this hard wood 
lumber. You have noticed that when one of these takes fire, it is 
long enough in burning to accommodate the fire department. 

At the time of the land sale, in the summer of 1835, many 'of 
the settlers were unprepared to pay for their land, even at the low 
price asked by the government. But there were many speculators 
here from the east, who were anxious to invest in land. They dare 
not, however, bid against a "settler," even though he might not 
have established a pre-emption right; for the settlers had organ- 
ized a kind of court to decide on all settlers' claims, and they were 
bound to protect each other against not only Uncle Sam, but '* the 
rest of mankind." The lands were worth more than double the 
government price, and hence compromises were efiected between 
the settler and the speculator, by which the speculator su}>plied the 
money to buy the land, and the settler gave him one half. Thus 
the settler got a reasonable amount of land for nothing. In con- 
sideration of the grants made to the state of lands for school and 
seminary purposes, and a per cent, upon all sales, these lands were 
exempted by the state from taxation for five years after sale. 

As a matter of course, for the first few years, we were mainly 
dependant upon older settlements for our supplies. These were 
brought mostly from the "Wabash." This region, somewhat iude- 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 33 

finite perhaps, was a kind of nursing mother to the northern part 
of our state. Flour, bacon, corn meal, dried fruit and whitewood 
siding, were the principal articles of commerce. These were trans- 
ported in those curious and capacious old wagons, which originated, 
I believe, in Pennsylvania, but which we used to call "Hoosier 
wagons," or " Prairie schooners," and which, with their canvas 
covers and long ox teams, traveling in company, reminded one ot 
the caravans of the east, as they slowly moved over the unob- 
etructed prairie. A curious specimen of humanity, too, was the 
driver, armed with his long whip, which he cracked with a noise 
like the report of a pistol, as he sat perched up in the bow of hi.- 
schooner, or plodded his way beside his cattle, clad in butteruui 
jeans, his face, hands and feet about the same color as his "bacon." 

This " bacon," by the way, was a curious product. It con- 
sisted of the "sides" of the hog, with the ribs removed and cured 
by salt, in stacks, then smoked a little, and was handled loose and 
unprotected by any khid of package or cover. It thus became 
exposed in summer to the flies, and was often well stocked with 
maggots. In this state it was not particularly relished by Yan- 
kees, and before offering it for sale, it is said to have been the cus- 
tom to stop outside of town and subject it to the action of smoke, 
with sufficient heat to cause a stampede of the maggots. I suppose 
after a week or two at Andersonville or Libby, one would not be 
so fastidious ! 

The Hoosier and his team traveled in entire independence of 
taverns. His capacious wagon carried his supplies for the journey. 
His wants were simple. Corn meal and bacon, coffee and tobacco, 
and most likely some whisky, formed the "common doings" with 
which he was content. And for his cattle he carried some corn, 
and allowed them to feed upon the rich herbage of the prairie night 
and morning. Camping by a spring or brook near the timber, he 
made his coffee with water from the spring, and toasted his bacon 
by a fire of faggots gathered from the woods, and now and then, 
when these were hard to find, a rail or two from the settler's fence. 
He slept at night under his canvas cover, secure from rain and dew. 

The years 1835 and 1836 were characterized by a rush of im- 
migration, and a rage for land speculation all over the west. The 



34 Joliet and Will County^ Forty Years Ago. 

land sale at Chicago in June, 1 835, brought many into the county 
eager to invest in lands and city lots, and in 1836, the fever reached 
its acme. We have had many epidemics since, such as the 
gold fever, the oil fever, the super-heated steam fever, and 
the fever and ague ; but I think none have equaled in 
intensity and universality the land fever of 1836. Everybody 
was eager to invest in lands and city lots. Many were the cities 
located, projected, and most beautifully platted, with liberal appro- 
priations for public squares, churches and academies ; and these 
were taken to eastern cities for the benefit of those who could not 
come west, and there sold. Indeed, town lots may be said to have 
been the only export from the west. We imported our flour and 
baeon, as at that time sufficient was not raised for the wants of the 
settlers and visitors. I presume that many here present are not 
aware of the fact, that Will county is dotted with the ruins of 
great cities. Yet such is the case. Palmyra, Williamsburg, Mid- 
dletown, Vienna, Carlyle, West Lockport, Kew Kochester, Buf- 
falo, Lunenbergh, etc., etc.; these are the names of some of these 
cities, which flourished in imagination and on paper, but they have 
passed away, leaving no vestige except upon the county records, 
and in the memory of their victims. 

But there was also another famous city, just over the line in 
another county, of which a little Dutchman, Johnny Beard, was 
the proprietor. Johnny thought this was to be "one very great 
city." He made a splendid looking one on paper, with the great 
Kankakee coming down from the east, and the Des Plaine and Du 
Page united Iroui the north, the " city of Kankakee" reposing in 
native beauty at the junction. Johnny used often to come up 
with his wife in a little old "coachee," and was alwtys full of his 
"city." He used to squeeze in a little whisky, too; but the old 
horses and coachee used to take him safe home, whether he could 
drive or not. He built a dam across the Des Plaine, a little above 
its junction with the Kankakee, (which forms the Illinois), and 
commenced building a mill. But the next spring the Kankakee, 
which drains a great extent of country far to the east in Indiana, 
got on a rampage long before the Des Plaine, which rices much 
farther in the north, and coming down with its great volume of 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 35 

water and ioe, dammed up the Des Plaines — turned its current north- 
ward, and sent Johnny Beard's dam, city, mill and all, a kiting 
up to Treat's Island, where it deposited the fragments. This was 
the last we heard of " Kankakee city," until some of our citizens 
" struck ile " there a few years since, and sunk a well, — and sunk 
a little pile of money, too ! 

The additions to our population in 1836, became too many to 
attempt a full enumeration. Among these were : J. A. Matteson, 
Orange Clmuncey, A.lbert Shepard, Uri Osgood, James Stout, 
Thomas, Edward and Bennett Alien, Mr. De Berard, John Our- 
rey, J. J. Garland, Dr. Comstock, Otis Hardy, Edmund Wilcox, 
Thomas R. Hunter, W. J. Heath, David Richards, Hugh Hen- 
derson, J. C. Newkirk, Hervey Lowe, Richard Doolittle, William 
Blair, Rufus Colton, Elnathan Bassett, William A. Boardman, 
Stephen Hubbard, Dr. Scholfield, William G. Hubbard, Dr. Lit- 
tle, Henry Fish, M. Worth ingham, David L. Roberts, Isaac H. 
Palmer, E. E. Bush, Dr. Simon Z. Havens, Theo. Woodruff. We 
attempt to give only a few prominent well-known names. 

Building was prosecuted rapidly during this year. Of the 
names given in the preceding lists, some are still citizens of Joliet. 
Many have passed away from earth ; some have found homes else- 
where. Thomas Cox laid out the town of W^inchester, (now Wil- 
mington,) and built a mill there. McKee initiated the town of 
Pontiac, by building a mill on the Vermillion. M. Worthingham 
is the Lieut. Worthingham who fills a soldier's grave in Oak wood, 
having been killed at the battle of Stone River. Allen Pratt was 
for many years one of our most active men, built a considerable 
number of buildings, but has been dead for some years. John M. 
Wilson is the well-known and honored Judge Wilson of Chicago, 
and the proprietor of the Joliet Mound Tile Manufactory. Some, 
such as William Blair and Thomas Allen, were afterwards, when 
hard times came on, seduced away by Chicago, and — poor fellows, 
they deserved a better fate — got rich ! 

I see I have omitted one prominent name from the list of 1836, 
and I will introduce it by a little story. It was sometime in this 
year that I received from the post office a letter, directed to George 
Woodruff. The address was wanting one initial letter, and it was 



36 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

in a delicate chirography, but I did not for a moment doubt that 
it had reached its proper destination, and I opened it and began to 
read. It began, "Dearest George," — this was just what I had 
long wanted her to say! — and it proceeded in a very tender and 
affectionate style. I liked it, so I read on until it seemed to imply 
some things that I had not been guilty of, so I turned to look at 
the signature. Now, I am not going to tell what this was — as I 
don't know but it might make trouble even at this late day — but 
it was not the name of the girl I left behind me, and so, very 
reluctantly, I returned the letter to the post office, when I learned 
that there was " another Richmond in the field," to maintain the 
honor of the name, and to become the banker of the family ! 

To relieve the tedium of the winter of 1834-5, I made my 
first visit to Chicago. My old friend Risley, of Channahon, was 
going up, and I took passage. Many here will remember him 
as the second sheriff of the county. He has now been dead sev- 
eral years, but when living he used often to tell the story of that 
ride. It was a cold day in January — cheerless was the way and 
rough the road. We filled the wagon with straw, and Mrs. Dem- 
mond, having a tender regard for our "creetur comfort," gave us 
a little bag of doe-nuts to beguile the way. Risley, when he told 
the story, used to aver that there was a pillow-case full, but I think 
this was a slight exaggeration. Well, the wind was cold and I was 
unused to the exposure, so I soon got down into the straw, along 
side the bag of doe-nuts. After a while I asked Risley if he did 
not want a doe-nut, to which he replied in the negative. This 
question was repeated several times as we rode along, and always 
received the same reply. Of course, after a while I ceased to press 
the matter. After riding along in silence some time longer, Risley 
himself began to feel an aching void under his vest, and he says, 
"I don't care, George, if I do try some of those doe-nuts." 
" You spoke too late," was the mildest way in which I could break 
to him the fact that the bag was empty ! The moral ot this story 
is : Take your doe-nuts when you can get them, especially if you 
are in " cahoot " with a hungry boy ! 

In due time we arrived at Chicago. The last nine miles of 
the road was splendid. In those days, the prairie from the 



Joliei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 37 

Chicago river out to the De&> Plainer was covered in the 
fall with water, which, freezing up, made a fine road-way 
in the winter. We stopped at the " 8aug-a-nash," the crack 
hotel of those days. It was part frame and part logs, and 
stood at the forks of the river, on the spot where the wig-wam 
in which Lincoln was nominated lor president, was afterwards 
built. Upon the west side, close to the river, there were two or 
three buildings, and from the Saug-a-nash down to the few stores 
and houses on Lake and Water streets, was a long stretch of prai- 
rie, — while the old log fort, '^ Dearborn," its offices and palisades, 
brilliant in whitewash, was the most conspicuous object in all that 
vast area now covered with marble palaces. I suppose the popu- 
lation of Chicago was then less than two thousand. 1 called at 
the office of Collins & Caton, where I found an old college friend, 
and made the acquaintance of that law firm, so well known subse- 
quently. I well remember the appearance of Judge Catr n — not 
then Chief Justice, but at the other end of the judicial ladder, be- 
ing a justice of the peace. He was a good specimen of the '"style " 
of that day, — broadcloth pants, tucked into the tops of " stoga " 
boots, satin vest, plug hat, ruffle shirt, and over all the blanket 
coat, then so universally worn by all classes. The "stoga" boots 
were a necessity in those days, as in no other rig could the streets 
of Chicago be navigated. But 1 have got away from my subject, 
and yet not altogether, for Chicago was as much a suburb of Joliet 
then as now. 

During this first winter of 1834-5, we were obliged to go to 
" Uncle Billy Cougar's," a little way above the red mill, to get our 
mail, and a letter then cost us twenty-five cents. This was the 
nearest post office, and was on the route of a weekly horse-back 
mail from Danville to Chicago. C. C. Vanhorne was the post- 
master, but the office was kept by one of the Gougar boys. I am 
not able to state what was the revenue of this office, but I know 
that the box rent was not much, as the entire office was but one 
old dry goods' box, divided off into a few pigeon holes. I wish I 
had the pencil of a Nast, that I could here illustrate this produc- 
tion with the picture of a young man I remember, astride an Indian 
pony, with his long legs drawn up behind him to keep them out of 



38 Joiiet and Wilt County, Forty ^'^ears Ayo. 

the wet grass or saow, eagerly taking his way every Saturday to 
'' Unele Billy's " for the anxiously expected letter. I should like 
to catch the look of eager expectation on his arrival, or the satis- 
fied expression of his phiz as he reads the letter for the twentieth 
time, slowly riding home; or the downcast, disconsolate air with 
which he turned about when the postmaster told him there was 
nothing. Oh, fathers and mothers ! don't forget to send promptly 
the desired letter to your absent boy ! Young woman, do not let 
juiy other engagement interfere with the duty of writing to the 
absent lover — and don't be backward about calling him "■ Dearest 
George," or John, as the case may be ! Be as gushing as you feel ! 
he can stand it ! 

In February, 1835, Dr. X. W. Bo wen obtained an appoint- 
ment as postmaster for Juliet, and a post office was soon after 
opened, and we got our mail by a cross route from Plainfield, con- 
necting with the stage route from Ottawa to Chicago. For a while 
in 1836, there was some trouble about the mail arrangements, and 
Dr. Bowen used to commission any reliable person who happened 
to be going to Plainfield, to bring over the mail. On one occasion 
Charley Sayer had been over after the mail, and returning just at 
night found the office closed, the doctor having gone to supper. 
Charley liad of (sourse been solemnly sworn safely to keep and 
deliver the mail, and he stood upon the doorsteps of the office in a 
quandary what to do. Just then a newly arrived lawyer passed 
by, and Charley told him his trouble, and asked the lawyer what 
he would advise him to do. The lawyer pondered a moment to 
give his opinion due weight, and then told him to take the mail 
bag home with him, get his own supper, and return with it, by 
which time the doctor would undoubtedly have returned, and he 
could relieve himself of his responsibility. Charley concluded to 
do so, and was about starting off, as was the lawyer, when it occur- 
red to him that he had been taking legal advice, and so, withsorae- 
thinu' of an air, he put his hand into his {)ocket and asked, ''How 
much is your charge, Mr. O. ? " Now, Mr. O. was then a young 
lawyer, and not so celebrated as he afterwards became, but I never 
heard of any lawyer, old or young, so green as not to be ready 
with a reply to such a question, and he promptly replied, " Five 



JoUet and Wilt Cotintt/, Forty Years Ago. o 9 

dollars." Charley hardly knew whether he was in earnest or not, 
but he handed over a " V^' to Mr. O., who coolly placed the same 
in his pocket, and bade him good evening. "AVhat! what!" says 
Charley, "you don't mean to keep that five dollars, do you ?" 
"Certainly, certainly," was the reply, "you don't expect legal ad- 
vice tor nothing, (\o yoii'^" Charley went lionie crest-fallen, mad 
at Mr. O., mad at the postoffioe department, and above all, mad at 
himself; and the more he thought about it the madder he got, and 
the story getting out, and the boys laughing at him, he got so mad 
that he went off and sued Mr. O. for the recovery of the five dol- 
lars. Of course he lost his suit, and another five dollars went for 
costs. 

Now this slory has two great moral lessons; one is, if you put 
money into a lawyer's hands, c/o n'^ think it a joke! and the other 
is, never sue a lawyer, for, like throwing fire at the devil, it won't 
scare muck ! 

During the summer of 1835, Mr. Demmond built the old stone 
block opposite the National. This was quite an event, and it was 
duly celebrated by a ball in the upper story. Plainfield, Yankee 
Settlement, Channahon and Hickory Creek, were canvassed for 
girls, and though you might not think it, our fellow-citizen, Chas. 
Clement, was particularly keen and active on the scent ! 

The next stone building was that of the Wilson's, south of the 
City Hall, which was built in 1836, and the stone block known as 
" Merchants' Row," was built in 1837. This, and the wooden 
block opposite, (which was burned in the late fire), was the centre 
of business on the west side, while the two wooden blocks on upper 
Chicago street were the centre of business on the ea^^t t^ide, and all 
were at one time filled with stores of the various kind. 

During this summer of 1835, occurred the first 4th of July 
celebration in Joliet, which was quite an affair. O. W. Still man 
and Dick Wilson were prime movers, and they got together quite 
a crowd from the surrounding country. We had all the usual pro- 
gn\mme. Noise, music, procession, marshal, chaplain, reader, ora- 
tion, dinner, toasts and champaigne — no essential was omitted. 
Rev. J. H. Prentiss was chaplain ; Jonathan Barnett, equipped with 
Major Cook's sash and sword, and mounted on a gray horse, cav- 



40 Joliet and Will County , Forty Years Afjo. 

orted as marshal, to the admiration of the natives. The exercises 
were held iu a little cluster of scrub oaks, somewhere near the St. 
Louis Round House. Dr. Bowen read the Declaration, and a 
young man who had lately rubbed through college, and who was 
supposed to have the nece.ssaiy spread-eagle eloquence, was selected 
to deliver the oration. 1 am sorry, on your account, that thei'e is 
no record of this oration. It ought to have been preserved, and 
to have gone down to posterity bound up with those of Webster 
and Adams. But we had no reporter to embalm it. You may 
believe, however, that it did ample justice to the Pilgrim Fathers, 
and the heroes of the revolution ; drew lessons of warning and in- 
struction from ancient Greece and Rome ; deprecated the evil of 
party spirit; and, while ignoring tlie subject of domestic slavery, 
commiserated the down-trodden millions of Europe, and closed 
with visions, almost apocalyptic, of the future glory of this great 
republic. I remember with what rapt attention my Hoosier friend, 
Joe Shanks, listened ; and how he inquired afterward if the speaker 
warn't a preacher ! It detracts somewhat from this estimate of the 
impression it made, that my friend. Dr. Bowen, did not even re- 
member who was the orator ! But such is fame ! 

But a still more important event occurred on this same 4th of 
July, 1835. This was no less than the first wedding in Juliet, 
which must be recorded. You will remember Henry Bone and 
wife as among those who passed the winter of 1834-5 in Juliet. - I 
shall have to disturb those Bones again. This man Bone is enti- 
tled to the questionable honor of opening the first doggery in town. 
Mrs. Bone was the daughter of the Mr. Pence I also named as 
one of the early settlers on Hickory. Mr. Pence, notwithstand- 
ing his name, was rich in the j)ossession of another daughter — 
Ann Pence. And now comes the old, old story — ever fresh, and 
ever new ! and always interesting, especially to the ladies, of the 
doings of the little god of the bow and arrow! But I am not go- 
ing into the detail, and only say that one Thomas Ellis saw this 
sweet Anne Pence, loved, and told his love. And the sweet Anne 
Pence, she too, owned the soft impeachment, and in due time the 
all-important day was fixed, and came, as I have said, on this 4th 
of July, 1834. The event came off at the residence of the said 



Joliet and Will Cowity, Forty Years Ago. 41 

Henry Bone, who occupied a building on the northeast corner of 
Chicago and Heuton streets, having his saloon in fro.it and living 
in the rear. The officiating justice was B. F. Barker, Esq. The 
guests were A. W. Bowen and wife, Charles Sayer, James Draper 
and James Smith, (was there ever an occasion when some mem- 
ber of this family was not present ! ) and the wife and daughter of 
the officiating justice. And it is from this daughter that I have 
the details of this event. Of course, ladies will want to know how 
the bride was dressed. Thanks to the good memory of the lady 
I have mentioned, I am able to tell you. The bride was dressed 
in pink De Laine and white apron, calf-skin shoes and hose of her 
own manufacture ; and for head dress, she wore a cap with a double 
ruffle all round, and I presume her own hair. The groom wore a 
full suit of Kentucky jeans. The wedding "de'jeuner" consisted 
of gingerbread, imported for the occasion, by ox-team express, 
from Chicago, and whisky sling, compounded by the skillful hands 
of the iiost. The hostess passed around the circle of guests with 
a card of gingerbread in each hand, and each one broke off as much 
as they pleased, and the host followed with two tin cups of sling, 
of which each one sipped as much as they pleased. The wedding 
tour consisted of a ride in a one-horse wagon to the plantation of 
Reason Zarley, Esq. 

I presume the honey-moon was, in all essential particulars, 
much like other honey-moons, and passed as happily as if they had 
made the tour of Europe, or as if the wedding had been as magni- 
ficent as that of Boss Tweed's daughter, a few years ago. Indeed, 
at such times the parties, whether dressed in silks and broadcloth, or 
calico and homespun, are supposed to be equally indifferent to time 
and place and circumstance. 

As somewhat germane to this matter, I would say, that I have 
made considerable enquiry in order to ascertain who was the first 
person born in Juliet. But I have found so many first ones, that 
I do not undertake to settle the question. My own impressions 
would be in favor of a McKee, as, according to my recollection, 
such an event was a yearly one at the McKee mansion. And it 
thus happened that the original mansion received numerous addi- 
tions in the shape of lean-to's, made necessary by the fast growing 



42 Joliet and Will Countyy Forty Years Ago. 

family, until it looked like a summer squash covered with warts. 
The boys used to say that they could tell when "coming events 
cast their shadows before," by seeing "Jimmy" at work on an- 
other "lean-to " > But although wo are not able to settle absolutely 
the question as to the priority of birth, this much has been shown 
by the inquiry : that such events did occur, even in those early 
days, and are no modern invention ! And I would say, in passing, 
that the Hon. George C. McKee, representative in congress from 
Mississippi, is one of those McKee children, though I think born 
a little too late to be the "first-born" of Joliet. But we don't 
disown him because he is a congressman ! 

Perhaps I ought to notice here the first divorce which occurred 
in Will county. This occurred in 1837. Levi Button obtains a 
divorce from " Matilda Button," on the ground of dceertion. 
This is all I know about the matter ! Why Matilda deserted Levi 
I have not the slightest idea. Perhaps he had cold feet ! — perhaps 
she had found an "affinity." Evidently these "Buttons" were 
not matched ! And whether Levi ever got any one else to look 
after his buttons, I don't know. The only thing I do know iurther 
about the matter is, that it cost him only ten dollars to get the 
decree. Now, my good " Benedicts," don't make a rush for court; 
the price of this, as of all other luxuries, has greatly advanced ! 

During the winter of 1835-6, through the active efforts of Dr. 
Bowen and James Walker as lobbyists, the legislature passed an act 
organizing Will county, and locating the county seat at Juliet. An 
election was ordered for three county commissioners, a sheriff, cor- 
oner, and recorder. At a convention held in Demmond's stone 
block, without regard to party, Holden Sisson, Thomas Durham 
and James Walker, were nominated as commissioners ; Robert 
Stevens for sheriff'; E. M. Daggett, coroner; and Geo. H. Wood- 
ruffj recorder ; and, although the ticket met with some opposition, 
it was handsomely elected. For these were the early — the better 
days — the golden age of Will county, when the best men w-ere 
selected for office ! Robert Stevens, however, decliued to accept 
the office of sheriff, and Fenner Aldrich was chosen at the fall 
election. 

I need hardly say, that the county commissioners' court an- 



Joliet and. Will County, Forty Years Ago. 43 

swered to our board of supervisors, doing the business of the 
county. They held their first meeting at the Juliet Hotel, then 
kept by William H. Blackburn, March 14th, 1836. They ap- 
pointed Levi Jenks clerk and school commissioner, and Charles 
Clement treasurer of the county. They divided the county into 
twelve election precincts. They also fixed the price of tavern 
charges at six and a quarter cents for all liquid refreshments, and 
twenty-five cents for meals, and twelve and a half cents for lodg- 
ings. After finishing the county business, they voted themselves 
six dollars each for their four days of service. Certainly not a 
very big salary steal ! 

The county commissioners rented the second story of the Wil- 
son's store for a court room, and here the county and circuit courts 
were held until the building of the first jail and court house. 

I rode an Indian pony to Plainfield, and took the stage for Chi- 
cago, purchased a large sized ledger for a record book, and opened 
the recorder's office in the back end of Demmond's store, in the 
stone block which he had built, and which still remains, having 
somewhat of an ancient look. 

It is probably well understood that a pretty sharp rivalry had, 
from the first, been kept up between the two sides of the river, and 
soon complaints were made that I was not keeping the office at the 
county seat. Such was indeed the fact. Demmond had recorded 
liis plat as " West Juliet," and not as an addition, as he claimed 
that his town was the "true, original Jacobs," and he scorned the 
idea of being an " addition." So they had me, no mistake. But 
1 was equal to the occasion. Anticipating Grant and Sherman, I 
made a "flank" movement, and moved down a few rods into a 
small frame building on the school section, which was surveyed 
and recorded in 1835 as an addition to Juliet, where I was joined 
by Levi Jenks, clerk, etc., and for a time at least, we were head- 
quarters for Will county. 

I have a few words more to say about this old Recorder's 
office. It was about sixteen feet square, and stood on the south 
side of Lafayette street, on the edge of what was then a rocky ra- 
vine, full of red cedars and other shrubs, vines and wild planta. 
It was the outlet for the water which accumulated on the low 



44 Joliet and Will County^ Forty Years Ago. 

ground on Centre street, known as "Comstock's Pond," and after 
heavy rains, had a very pretty cascade. All this has been obliter- 
ated by the march of improvement. We held the office there but 
a short time, while a better building was being put up a little north, 
on Bluff street, by J. J. Garland. While we were there an amus- 
ing incident occurred. The office had one door in front, and two 
small windows, and one large window in the rear. Jenks had his 
desk by one of the front windows, and a lawyer, J. C. Newkirk, 
had a desk by the other. The recorder's desk stood in front of the 
back window. 

I have mentioned Rev. J. H. Prentiss as the first minister who 
located in Joliet. He came here from Onondaga county. Is. Y. 
He was an excellent man — a fair preacher, extremely diffident and 
modest, and easily embarrassed. He knew no more what to do 
with a joke, than a hen does with a hot potato. One Sunday he 
preached a sermon in the old school house on Hickory street, from 
the text, "Curse ye, curse ye Meroz," etc. The Dominie had been 
unusually eloquent and earnest, and closed up with an application 
of the passage to his audience, " Curse ye, curse ye Juliet^'' etc., etc. 
It so happened that the recorder had been to church on that day, 
and the next Monday, having got tired with writing, he took his 
favorite position, %. e., turned his back to the door, lit his pipe, and 
put his feet out of the window. Suddenly the sermon he had 
heard came to mind, and he repeated the closing sentences, with 
the text as applied to "Juliet," in a loud voice, and imitating the 
style [of the preacher. He did this for the edification of Jenks 
and Newkirk, who had not heard the sermon. He expected that 
his effi^rt would meet with applause and a hearty " encore." But 
instead of that, there was a profound silence that seemed ominous 
of something. Surprised at this, he turned round to see what 
could be the matter, and there, in the door, stoiKl Dominie Pren- 
tiss — the reddest faced, mo?t embarrassed man you ever saw, un- 
less we except Jenks, who had risen up and stood looking as 
though he wished the floor would open and let him out of sight, 
his big eyes looking like peeled onions, — while Newkirk, partly 
behind the door, was cramming his handkerchief into his mouth 
to prevent an explosion. Now, according to all rules of propriety, 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Yeais Ago. 45 

the recorder should have been most embarrassed by the situation, 
but I think he was the least so, and relieved himself by saying: 
"Good morning, Mr. Prentiss, arn'tyou glad to find that one man 
at least, was impressed by your sermon?" 

One great reason for this rivalry, aside from the diverse inter- 
ests of the proprietors and speculators on either side, was the ab- 
sence of bridges. Our modes of communication were verv incon- 
venient, sometimes dangerous, and sometimes we had none at all. 
Sometimes we crossed in a "dug-out," or a "skiif," and sometimes 
we had a "ferry," sometimes a "ford," and sometimes a precari- 
ous " foot bridge." During this bridgeless era, which lasted until 
the incorporation of the town in 1837, many incidents occurred — 
some comic and some tragic. Some lost their property, some lost 
their lives, and many more lost their temper. Of the latter num- 
ber was Thomas Allen, who was crossing on the mill pond in the 
ferry boat, which was pulled over by a rope strung from trees on 
either bank. The boat had already got loaded to its full capacity, 
and was about shoving off when two more jumped aboard, against 
the protestations of Allen and others, consequently they had gone 
but a little way when she dipped, and went down with all on board, 
who got a thorough wetting. Tom came out puffing and blowing, 
mad as a hornet, for he had on his "store" clothes, and turning 
to the party who was the cause of the catastrophe, and shaking 
his list in his face, says, " I owe my death to you, sir ! " 

On another occasion John Ward, who will be remembered by 
some, for he has but lately passed away, undertook during a season 
ot liigh water to make the passage of the ford. He had gone over 
on the west side in the morning without much difficulty. But 
Jt)!m loved a drop in those days, and he had been laying in a 
iiv h supply, some of which he carried under his jacket, and some 
ir. :i jug, which he had placed in a bag and slung over the saddle. 
'i'->'i river had risen some in the meantime, and his judgment Avas 
I'i' >i)ably not as clear as when he came over. At any rate, the horse 
soon lost his footing, and began to go down stream in the strong 
current. The horse was a light one, and not a strong swimmer, 
i\r\(\ the matter began to look pretty serious, and John concluded 
had better "desert the ship." But he had no thought of de- 



46 Joliet and WUi County, Forty Years Ago. 

serting the cargo ! So he slung the bag over his shoulder, and 
struck out for an island near which the current had taken him, 
which, with great elibrt, he succeeded in reaching, — wet, cold and 
shivering; his hat gone ; his horse and saddle gone; but satisfied, 
for the whisky was safe ! and with the air of a conqueror, he swung 
the jug before the spectators on either bank. I am glad to be able 
to add that soon after, under the combined influence of Methodism 
and Washingtonianism, John was saved from a worse flood — from 
a current swifter and more perilous, and for many years led a sober, 
christian lite ; showing that a strong will, supplemented by the 
grace of God, can conquer even the demon appetite for strong 
drink. 

Another little incident occurred during this bridgeless era, 
which I am at a loss how to classify. O. F. Rogers had been over 
the river to attend a Methodist meeting, and was accompanying a 
Miss Allen home, to whom he was paying serious attention. They 
had to cross on a narrow foot bridge, only one plank wide. Miss 
Allen was i)robably deeply affected by the sermon she had heard, or 
by Rogers' comments, and was a little careless, or perhaps she 
wanted to put Rogers' professions to some test ; at any rate, she 
made a mis-step, and plump she went into the water. Rogers saw 
his opportunity — plunged in, and most gallantly rescued the fright- 
ened girl from a watery grave! Rogers had been up to this time 
unsuccessful in his suit ; but now, having the law of salvage and 
the rights of "flotsam and jetsam" on his side. Miss Allen grace- 
fully surrendered, and in due time became Mrs. Rogers. • Whether 
this "finale" should bring the incident in the category of the 
* comic' or the 'tragic,' I am at a loss to say — ask Rogers ! 

There was one more incident of this era which I will relate, 
and which was almost a tragical one. A man of the name of 
Gould — a first rate mechanic, who built the " Higley House," a 
building still extant, (though moved from its original position) was 
sadly addicted to whisky. During one of the times of high water 
in spring, Gould crossed in a boat over to the other side to get a 
supply of his favorite fluid. He first got filled himself and the 
surplus he had put in a jug, and started out just at night to return. 
He was in that condition when it was not easy to navigate on dry 



Jollet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 47 

laml, and when to attempt to manage a boat in a swollen stream is 
madness. But in that state men are usually ready to commit any 
folly, and Gould placed his jug in the boat and pushed it off into 
the current. The result will be readily anticipated. All his efforts 
at paddling were of no avail. The strong current soon took boat, 
man and jug, over McKee's old dam together. But they parted 
company in the plunge. The Jug went to the bottom of the river, 
the boat on its way to New Orleans, and poor Gould was fortunately 
carried by tlie current against the roots of a tree which had been 
carried over the dam before him, and he instinctively grasped hold 
of them, and drew himself up out of the water, and employed what 
strength he had left in calling lustily for help. He was heard — 
and very soon a crowd was gathered upon either bank. But how 
to rescue him was a problem. Ropes were thrown out to him, 
but he was too weak and chilled, and perhaps too drunk, to catch 
hold and fasten them to his body; and if he could have done so, 
he would have been drowned in the act of being pulled through 
on either side. No one dare venture in a "dug-out," the only 
remaining boat, and it really seemed as though the poor fellow 
must perish there in the middle of the stream, for his voice was get- 
ting weaker, and he could evidently hold out but a little longer. 
At this critical juncture, a stranger, mounted on a good horse, who 
had just come into town for the night, seeing the crowd, rode up 
to see what was the occasion of it. He took in the situation at a 
glance, and without a moment's hesitation rode down the bank, 
and up the edge of the river until he had got to the spot above 
Gould, which he judged was right for the force of the current, he 
boldly struck out and swam his horse to the tree, snatched off the 
half dead Gould, swung him on to the horse in front of him, and 
swam out to the other side, and handed the half-drowned man over 
to his friends, who took him into the nearest house and restored 
him to consciousness. His rescuer swam his horse back to the east 
side, and quietly made his way to the hotel, seemingly unconscious 
that he was the hero of the day. Gould's first inquiry, on coming 
to a state of consciousness, was — for the friend who had so nobly 
rescued him from a watery grave? — Alas! no — 'twas for the jug 
which held the enemy that had put him in such fearful peril. 



48 Joliet and Will Count)/, Forty Years Ago. 

Gould had auother water experience somewhat disagreeable, 
though not quite so perilous. It seemed as if the genii of cold 
water were bent on revenging the slight which Gould had so long 
pat upon that element. 

Tliere used to be in those days a large pond, over in what is 
now Centre street, just back of Dr. Comstock's, and which was 
known as Comstock's Pond. There was then no outlet to the water 
except when it got very high, and the waters that used to accumulate 
there, would remain for a long time. On the edge of this pond, 
at wJiat might be called low water, Gould had built his house. 
The ground was sloping and the rear end was well set up on a very 
loosely constructed foundation of stones. Une night during a 
poweiful rain the water rose very fast, and flooded all around 
Gould's house, and while Gould and his family were asleep, the 
current took out the rear wall, and the house took a sudd< n lurch 
into the pond. The family were obliged to roost on the chairs and 
tables until day came, and the neighbors rescued them from their 
uncomfortable, though not perilous, position. 

I wish now, that in Gould's case, I could add that he reformed. 
But, alas! I have no such record to make in this instance. These 
experiences seemed only to deepen his hatred of the element, and 
despite all — despite the perils he had encountered — despite the 
poverty and wretchedness he brought upon his family — despite the 
solemn warning of God's word: no drunkard shall inherit the 
kingdom of heaven! Gou4d died as the fool dieth. His fate was 
the fate of all, whether they be humble mechanics or gifted states- 
men, senators or governors, who will cling to the damning cup ! 

But this state of things could not be tolerated forever. The 
public voice and the- public necessities called for bridges. So a 
special act of incorporation was obtained in 1837, and soon after — 
having no money — that ingenious substitute, " scrip," was devised, 
and two bridges were built where the lower and middle ones no'.v 
stand. They were, to all appearance, substantial wooden struc- 
tures, and so tlie two sides were married and became one town, 
and for a time everything was lovely, and the union was duly "cel- 
ebrated." But this union was not for life. A divorce was coming 
without the aid of a Chicago lawyer. The spring of 1838 was 



Joliet and Will Comity, Forty Years A<jo. 49 

one of unprecedented high water. The river broke up while the 
ice was still strong, and as the ice went out of the basin it took the 
upper bridge along with it ; and ice, bridge and all, going over the 
dam, piled up against the lower bridge with a force that nothing 
made of wood could resist, and so they both went, and we were a 
divorced couple. It was a grand and sublime spectacle ! The en- 
tire town, and many from the country, were 'gathered upon either 
bank to witness it. A sad, sad sight it was, to tax-payers and 
scrip-holders! It had its comical aspect, too. When it became 
apparent that the bridges must go, each one took care that the 
oatastrophe should find him on the side where he took his hash 
and lodgings — all except two. Westly Jenkins, a great six-footer 
from Reed's Grove, and Thomas Underwood, a boon companion, 
were over on the west side, and so absorbed were they by the sight, 
being a little muddled withal by ''corn juice," that they forgot 
where they were, until just before the lower bridge began to start, 
when Jenkins woke up, and shouting to Tom to "come on," and 
without the slightest reii^ard to the siofu forbidding the crossiuii; of 
the bridge faster than a walk, witii ihe stride of a Titan he tore 
over the creaking bridge, and Tom followed, while the spectators 
shouted after them, "Five dollars tine! Five dollars fine!" Jen- 
kins had the start and led the race, and got over all right, but be- 
fore Tom reached the other end it parted from the shore, and he 
had to make a tremendous leap for the land, and barely reached 
it, while a shout of congratulation went up from the crowd at his 
success. This same Jenkins was noted for his voice. The boys 
used to say that they could hear him here in town when he called 
his cows. I don't know how this may have been, but when a cer- 
tain chaj) in that neighborhood took it into I lis head that he ought 
to be a preacher, and insisted that he heard '' a call from the Lord," 
the boys said to him, " Fhsaw ! plisaw! John, it was nothing but 
old Jenkins calling his hogsT^ 

Thomas Underwood became a good Methodist soon after the 
aifair of the bridge, and when he told his experience, he attributed 
his conversion to this incident, and averred that when he took that 
last leap for the shore, he " saw all hell staring at him, and fore- 
swore sin and whisky from that good hour." So what was our 
loss, was Tom's great gain ! 



50 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

I am not able to state what was our population in the winter 
of 1836-7, but that it was not very large will appear from the fact 
that J. C. Newkirk, (who, by the way, was oue of the best law- 
yers, and one of the best fellows Joliet ever had,) wishing to intro- 
duce the Xew York custom of making New Year's caiLs, proposed 
to a friend to call on every family in town. Accordingly they sallied 
forth to make the attempt. I think they woukl have accomplished 
it but for one circumstance. Late in the afternoon they called on 
Dr. Bowen, who was then living in upper Chicago street, and had 
his office adjoining his residence. The Doctor, in the exuberance 
of his hospitality, brought from his office a bottle of wine. Now 
the Doctor did not pretend to give the date of the vintage, or even 
the name of the wine, so I cannot tell whether it was "Tokay," 
or " Heidsiek," or " Johanesberger," or what not, but 1 have 
never doubted that he kept it strictly for '* medicinal purposes," 
and his bringing it forth on this occasion was no violation of the 
rule. From its effects I have always suspected that the bottle from 
whicli he took it was labeled, " Vinum Ipecacuanha," or "Vinum 
Antimonalis." At any rate, it did not seem to agree with what 
had gone before, and — the callers soon left — and they did not make 
any more calls that day ! The Doctor might perhaps urge that it 
is not fair to lay the breaking of the camel's back to the last straw ! 
The moral of this story is not far to seek. If you make New 
Year's calls, don't drink any wine — at a doctor's — ^unless you see 
the original package ! 

Probably nothing will show the contrast between 1836 and 
1873 so well, and I may say so impressively, as the matter of taxes. 
Here is my first tax receipt : 

" Received of (xeorge H. Woodruff, for his taxes for the year 18.'W, f 1,81 
Fenner Aldrich, (S'/«e/v;/^' o/ Will county. 

How brief, vague, and unsatisfactory ! Evidently the science of 
taxation had not then become a high art ! Contrast with this the 
last receipts for 1873. Here they are, most elaborately and artis- 
tically divided and subdivided into town, county, state and city — 
into real and personal — (for my part, I find them all intensely real, 
and intensely pei^sonal, too) — into district school, district road, and 



Joliet awl Will County, Forbj Years Ago. 51 

district bridge; into bridge tax, school tax, school house tax, gas 
tax, well tax, interest on funded debt tax, rolling mill tax, and dog 
tax — amounting in the case of this poor crlttur, to the comforting 
sum of nearly two hundred dollars, — he don^t keep any dog either ! 
Ain't that richness ? I suppose two more — a water tax and a sewer 
tax will be added to the bill of fare! And if this be not enough, 
we can have any amount of " special tax," and a tobacco tax, and 
a whisky tax, as often as we please ! And yet we are not happy, 
not even Jefferson street is happy ! 

I have found in the public mind sometimes, an impression that 
the boys were a little fast in those early days. Nothing could be 
farther from the truth. We were slow then. Boys were not ini- 
tiated into the mysteries of tobacco until they had graduated from 
the trundle-bed, and young men were expected to forego cigars 
when in the presence of the girls. To be sure, each important 
event, such as getting the sto,ge route, the passage of the county 
bill, and of the canal bill, etc., etc., had to be celebrated ! But it 
had not then become fashionable for the " upper ten," to which 
we all belonged, to drink that vilest of human inventions, called 
" whisky." No, no — we drank " champaigne," — that [)ure, spark- 
ling beverage, produced in the sunny orchards of New Jersey, and 
who-eonly sophistication Was the addition of carbonic acid gas, an 
innocent, harmless drink, comparatively, at least; expensive, to be 
sure, for when charged with gas, sealed with a green seal, and orna- 
mented with a French label, it was worth two or three dollars per 
bottle, owing in part, no doubt, to the high tarilf between New 
Jersey and Yew York. I say a harmless beverage, of which a 
man might drink enough to get sick, but not vulgarly drunk — 
slightly exhilarating it may have been, owing to the gas ; there are 
some traditions of such effects; but surely it was better that a man 
should be exhilarated — elevated even to the top of the table, than 
to be thrown under it, or into the gutter ! This was before the 
advent of our Teutonic friend, with his ''fust rate lager," and 
theretore the experience of those days throws no light upon the 
question whether lager will intoxicate. From observation, how- 
ever, I judge it will, if properly reduced with "corn juice." 

It wa.s at one of these celebrations, at the "Old American/* 



52 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

that one of the boarders, whose name I am not going to give^-but 
it was not " High^^ (perhaps it ought to have been), made so much 
sport for the boys peeking in at the door, as they watched his des- 
perate efforts to light a candle made out of a turnip, which one of 
them had substituted for the "regulation tallow dip." I don't 
know whether he ever found out what was the matter, but he 
thought at the time it was because the lani]) on the mantle he^it 
dodging about so f 

Joliet has had some notable justices of the peace ; but I think 
that in this matter our neighboring town of Lockport has beat us. 
She once had a justice of the peace, whose name we will call C. J.. 
Justices of the Peace were authorized to take the acknowledgment 
of deeds, and the law required that the wife of the grantor shoiild 
be examined by the justice separate and apart, and out of the hear- 
ing of her husband, to relinquish her dower. Now it happened 
that this C. J. was himself an operator in lots, and on one occa- 
sion having made a sale, he executed the deed with his wife, and 
then, as justice of the peace, took his own acknowledgment, and 
also that of his wife, "separate and apart and out of the hearing 
of her said husband." Uoio this feat was accomplished, I am un- 
able to inform you, but that he did it there can be no doubt, for 
there it stands under his hand and seal, on the county records ! I 
am free to tell this now, as the man has been dead over seven 
years, and It is too late for our lawyers to bring an ejectment on 
the score of defective acknowledgment. 

It was one of the curious provisions of the law in the times of 
which I am speaking, that each person could let his cattle and 
hogs run at large, and that he could identify them by certain ear 
marks, which were to be recorded iu a book kept by the county 
clerk. Hence it happened that, even in those days, when we had 
no mayor and common council, no marshal and ])oIice, and not 
even a city ordinance forbidding it — I say without any of these 
modern eneourajjements, hoo;s and cattle ran at large in our streets. 
Hence the following incident: Demmond & Curry were trading 
in the old stone block, and doing a bartei" business, and took in 
considerable butter, which they kept in the cellar. Now it hap- 
pened also, that Dr. Adams owned a fancy hog, of the " school 



JoHet and Will County^ Forty Years Ago. 53 

aection breed," one of the loDg-uosed kind that are said to 
stick the snout through a fence and pick off the third row of corn. 
This hog, by a kind of prescience which only a hog has, seemed to 
know in a moment when the cellar door was left open, and no 
matter in what part of the township he might be wandering, or 
what might be his previous engagements, he instantly appeared 
upon the scene, and slipped in ; and thus it happened that many a 
jar of butter was rendered unfit for anything except a Chicago 
restaurant. The boys had stood this until forbearance had ceased 
to be a virtue, and they swore vengeance. One rainy night as they 
were about to close up, they heard his hogship enter the cellar ; so, 
instead of driving him out, they shut the outside door and held 
iiim prisoner. They caught him, and saturated him thoroughly 
"with spirits of turpentine, and taking him to the door, touched the 
<5andle to him and bid him go! And he went! He stood not 
upon the order of his going — but with an unearthly yell he tore 
through the street, lighting up the darkness with the lurid blaze, 
-and terribly frightening the canal -ers, men and women, who verily 
believed it was the ^'divil himself" fresh from hell; and they 
'Called uj)on all the saints in the calendar for protection. On, on 
went Mr. Hog! — straight for Higley's barn, one of his lodging 
places; and the boys began to think that they had got into a worse 
scrape than (he hog. Bat, fortunately, the hog concluded not to 
stop, but went through so quick that the fire did not catch; and 
■putting straight for the river, like the swine of old, plunged in the 
water, and "silence and darkness, solemn sisters," reigned again. 
I am sorry for it, but I don't think this story has any moral, 
fortunately for the boys, this was before the advent of Bergh ! 

I had intended to give several personal sketches of some of our 
>early settlers who have passed away, but I have already, I fear, 
wearied your patience, and will postpone all but one to chapter 2d 
•of this history. 

Dr. Comstock will be well remembered as (for a long time) one 
^of our most respected citizens and physicians. He was somewhat 
eccentric, and many anecdotes could be told of him. He was a 
aaan of strong mind, and of considerable culture, both literary and 
.professional. He could repeat the standard poeta by the yard, and 



64 Joliei and Will County, Forty Yeam Af/o. 

was at home in Virgil, in the original. He was not remarkable for 
his "style," either in dress or equipage. He was also a local 
preacher of the Methodist church, and often supplied acceptably 
the pulpit of his own and other churches in the absence of the reg- 
ular preacher. He had a brother living in Michigan, who often 
came to visit him, and who was in some respects very much like 
him, while in others he was very wnlike. He had held the posi- 
tion of chaplain to Congress at one time, and was always very sleek 
and well dressed, and carried a gold-headed cane. He was also a 
physician, and also a preacher, but of the Baptist faitli, although 
not of the "hard shell" variety. I used to think of Dickens' 
"Cheeryble brothers" whenever I saw them together. They were 
very much attjiched to each other, and (»ur Methodist doctor always 
marked with a white stone the day when his brotlier came to visit 
him. On one occasion as our Methodist doctor was in front of his 
house, about getting into his old wagon for a professional tour, — 
house, horse, wagon and himself, very much alike in their general 
makeup — the Baptist doctor drove up in a splendid new "sulky," 
one of those unsocial vehicles which will hold but one. The Meth- 
odist <loctor saw him comins, took in at a y:;lauce the whole ria^ — 
in such marked contrast to his own — and although longing to rush 
up and take his brother by the hand, he coolly folded his arms, sur- 
veys for an instant the Baptist and his "turn-out," and with a 
merry twinkle of the eye, exclaims: "Close communion — carriage 
and all." 

The brothers have long since [)assed away from earth, and have 
no doubt met and embraced each other where the things in which 
they were ?/;wlike are as nothing, and the things in which they were 
alike, have become all in all! 

?»'Iany, many are the memories that rush upon me — but I must 
close. Our subject is only another illustration of the oft told tale. 
Change, change is written upon all human things! Plow much of 
what was so real forty years ago has passed away ! The present 
seems almost another civilization. We hear no more of "claims," 
and "floats," and "pre-emptions;" of "squatters" and "squat- 
ters' rights," and " Indian payments," and "land sales." "Wolf 
hunts" delight us no longer. The " Hoosier," with his peculiar 



Joiiet and Will Cou7ity, Forty Years Ago. 55 

dress aud dialect, cracking his Ibrniidabie ox-gad as he drives his 
long breaking team, aud with his huge plow turning over the vir- 
gin sward, and ruthlessly burying whole hecatombs of flowers, and 
leaving behind him those long ribbons of black, rich earth, inviting 
the foot of the planter — he, and his plow, are things of the past. 
The long trains of "prairie schooners," laden with flour and bacon 
for Chicago and intermediate ports, which used to form such a 
picturesqe sight, slowly wending their way over the prairie swells, 
have given place to the longer and swifter railway train. The 
"Indian trail," once so well defined, has been obliterated by the 
track of the locomotive. The prairies themselves have disap- 
peared. True, there is the same soil — the same townships and 
sections, but they are the 

" ■■ '*■ * gardens of the deaert ; 
The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful " 

no longer. The great magician, "labor," the sound of whose 
coming footsteps was just beginning to be heard forty years ago, has 
waved his wand, and lo ! all those fair wastes have been changed to 
cultivated farms — the landscape is checkered with fences, hedges 
and roads — dotted with orchards and dwellings, with churches and 
school houses, and all the evidences of an advanced civilization. 

And while the same wooded blufls still shut in this valley, and 
form so beautiful a frame work, — hei'e upon this rocky bottom, forty 
years ago so barren and uninteresting, lo! a city is here ! Here 
are streets lined on either side with the palaces of trade, — the 
smoke of manufactories ascends where was then seen only that of 
the wigwam or the prairie tire, — and homes of wealth, comfort and 
refinement, churches and school houses, hotels, warehouses and 
opera houses, fill in and complete the picture. 

I have but one tear of regret to shed over all this change. It 
is for the flowers — the native flowers, once so abundant and so 
beautiful. For, with the prairies, these too have passed away. I 
search long, now, to find the Hepatica of spring. The " Lobe- 
lia Cardinalis" no longer flaunts its scarlet banner; the fragrant 
"Spiranthes" has ceased to breathe its perfume; and it is onlj 
in hidden nooks that the " Dodecatheon " still lifts its graceful 



66 Joliei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

stem, crowned with its nodding, starry umbel; — while in all mj 
walks I meet no more the "Fringed Gentian/' that beautiful; 
flower, dyed in heaven's own blue -^ 

" That waitest late, and com'st alone, 
When woods are bare, and birds have flown. 
And frosts, and short'ning days portend 
The aged year is near its end." 



LECTURE II. 



CONTENTS OF LECTURE 11. 



Inlroduction — History of Canal — Its conimencerrjent^ — Its suspension — 
Reasons — Internal Inrvprovement Act — Work res\imed — Change of base — 
Completion — Celebration — Sad Accident — Tribute to Engineer-in-Cliief^ 
Old Stage Times — Haven "boys and their mill— The great Celtic Invasion — 
The Irishman, philosophically viewed — First Irish War — The first Posse 
Comitatus of Will County— Trial of Rioters^An Irish Repartee— Joliet 
Mound — A case of Vandalism— Interesting tradition — Effects of the Canal 
Suspension — Era of hard times — Compensations — Washingtonian Move- 
ment—Happy case of reformation— The old Stone Block— First Printing 
Press and Newspaper — First Theatre — Churches — Lodges — Protracted Meet- 
ing — Revival — Village Incorporation — Election — First Board of Trustees — 
Second Board — County Judges — Second Election of Recorder— The Old 
Foundry — Discovery of Coal — Steam Plow — Steam Mill — How Charley 
Smith began his Fortune— The old Jail— Baptist Church — Revival— A 
Murder Story— A Wolf Huntr-Peter Stewart— Underground Rail Road— 
A Sleigh Ride— A Case of Kidnapping — A Houev Feast — Jiidge Nortou— 
Cionclusion, 



LECTURE II. 



DELTVERKD AT TIIK (>PERA HOUSE, .lOLIET, MARCH JAth. 1874. 



Some one has defined History to be "Philosophy, teaching by 
example." I suj)pose this is a very good definition. I think it 
exactly describes the kind of history I am trying to give the pub- 
lic, of early days in Joliet and Will county. Of course, iu one 
lecture only a beginning could be made. This was all I expected 
to do Avhen I gave my first lecture, juntas 1 had several "exam- 
ples" left over, and as I have gathered new matter since, I have 
tlionght that another chapter of our early history might prove 
equally interesting. I think it will be found (pilte as historical, 
and quite as philosophical as the first. Of one thing you may 
rest assured, that everything is founded upon fact ! 

It has often occurred to me while collecting memoranda, and 
trying to recall events, that it would have been a happy thing if 
Mr. Clement, or myself, had kept a diary from our first arrival in 
this county. If I had access to such a record, I could have made 
these lectures much more interesting, with much less labor. I 
urge, therefore, upon my young friends here, as one of the lessons 
to be got from this effort, the duty of keeping a diary. I mean a 
record of facts, occurrences, dates, characters, etc. A note or two 
each day, of whatever happens, (and you will find that something 
happens every day) is easily made, and might ])rove very valuable 
liereafter. You may wish to give a historical lecture; yourself some 
day. So, young man, young woman, begin such a diary at once 



62 Joliet and Will County, F&rtij Years A(/o. 

and please set down for the first entry, that on the 24th day of 
March, 1874, Mr. George H. Woo Iriifi-', one of the longest resi- 
dents of Joliet, delivered a highly interesting lecture, etc., etc. 
Perhaps some one digging in the ruins of Joliet some centuries 
hence may stumble ujxmi the record, and your name and mine, 
together, go down the ages! Please be careful that you do not 
omit the " H," for my good friend "the banker" has already had 
the credii ol' too many of my good things, while I have had to 
hear the blame — well, well — he belongs to the family, and I won't 
be hard on him. 

From the year 183C, the history of Joliet and Will county has 
been iutimaiely associated with the canal. 1 gave in my former 
lecture the })oints in its history, from its conception to commence- 
ment. The first ground was broken at Bridgeport, July 4th, 
1836. Chicago celebrated the event in the style of that day. ^Dr. 
William B. Egan delivered an able address on the occasion. The 
work was commenced on the plan of the "deep cut," that is, feed- 
ing it directly from Lake Michigan, through the south branch of 
the Chicago river, as is now done. At the time of letting the first 
contracts the mania for speculation was at its height, and labor and 
provisions were extremely high for those times. Labor was twenty 
to thirty dollars per month, with board. Pork twenty to thirty 
dollars per barrel; flour nine to twelv^e dollars, and other things 
m proportion. The first contracts were predicated upon these high 
prices. To facilitate the construction of the canal, a road was 
opened from Chicago to Lockport, known as " Archer's Road," 
from the acting commissioner, on which ^40,000 dollars were ex- 
pended. The propriety of this expenditure was much questioned 
at the time, and unfortunately for the reputation of Archer for 
disinterestedness, he was the proprietor of an addition to Lockport. 
But it is certain that supplies for the laborers had mainly to be 
brought from abroad, as at this time no great surplus was raised 
along the line. 

The work was prosecuted by means of the money obtained 
from the sale of bonds, and of canal lands and lots, in Chicago, 
Lockport, Ottawa and La Salle, until 1842, at an outlay of over 
five million dollars, when the work was suspended. 



Jolkt and Will Cow.tij, Fortij Yearn A(,o. 63 

Although the enterprise was coniuienced when everything had 
to be done in the most expensive way, and when the country was 
on the eve of a great Hnatieial crasli, vet tiie State oould easily have 
gone through witii it, and uiaintained her credit, if other projects 
had not been connected with it. The central and southern portions 
of the State, with very narrow views, looked upon the canal as 
entirely for the benefit of the north, and insisted uj)on com[)ensa- 
ting railroads, as the price of their votes for further appropriations 
to the canal ; and, in 1837, the act was passed, which ultimately 
swamjied the credit of our State and brought on our financial 
ruin. By this act a loan of eight millions was authorized, on the 
faith of the State, for the purpose of grid-ironing the State with 
railroads, and a four milh'on loan for the further prosecution of 
the canal. The sum of two hundred thousand dollars from the 
eight million loan, was to be given to those counties througii which 
no railroad passed, for the construction of roads and bridges. 
And, absiu'd as was this scheme at that time, loans were made to 
the amount of nearly six millions. 

As the practical result of ali this, a short railroad was built 
from Springfield to Meredosia, and various others commenced at 
either end, as the act required, and great quantities of railroad iron 
were imported, free of duty, by special act of congress. But be- 
fore any other road was completed, the whole scheme came lo a 
disgraceful end. It may not be improper to remark in passing, 
that it was by the purchase afterwards, (paying in depreciated scrip 
at par) of this railroad iron of the State, and selling to eastern 
roads, that Governor Matteson laid the foundation of his fortime. 
The great commercial prostration which struck the east in 1837, 
was, by means of the disbursement of these canal and railroad 
loans, warded off from us for a year or two, and the work of the 
canal was kept along, although feebly, until 1842, by the help of 
canal scrip, and of the " contractors' loan," as it was called, from 
the fact that the contractors had sent General Thornton to Europe 
to sell bonds, they agreeing to stand the discoimt, even to twenty- 
five per cent, if necessary. This they could afford to do, now that 
the prices of labor and provisions hail greatly fallen. 

By the full of 1840, a debt had been contracted by the State 



6-i Joliei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

of $14,237,348, vvliiclinuwt be paid by a population of 478,929 — 
nearly thirty dollars lor every man, woman and child. And this 
amount does not include what the State had misapplied from the , 
school fund, and from the surplus deposits of the United States. 
By great exertion the interest on the canal debt was paid up to, 
and inchuling 1841 ; but for 1842 no provision could be made, and 
the work stopped entirely. An expenditure, as I have already 
said, of over five millions had been made upon it, and the con- 
tractors abandoned their jobs, claiming heavy damages of the 
State. An act was passed for a settlement with them, limiting the 
amount to two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. 

To the credit of our State let it be said, that the idea of repu- 
diation was never seriously entertained by our people, to any ex- 
tent, and subsequent prosi)erity and wise legislation have long 
since obliterated the debt. 

But the canal could not, of course, be allowed to remain long 
In this condition. The bondholders were equally interested with 
us in devising some means for its speedy completion. It was a 
work of too great and too general importance to be abandoned alto- 
gether. In the session of 1842-3, an act was passed which ultim- 
ately succeeded in accomplishing this purpose. By this act, the 
canal itself, and all its unsold lots and lands, were to be transferred 
to a board of three trustees, two to be chosen by the bondholders 
and one by the governor of the State. The bondholders were to 
advance the further sum of $1,600,000 to complete the canal on 
another level. The trustees were to prosecute the work and retain 
possession of the canal and its revenues until the debt and further 
cost of its construction, and interest on the same, should he. fully 
paid bv the tolls and moneys derived from the sale of lands and 
lots. The board was organized and the work was resumed in 1845, 
and prosecuted until fully completed in 1848. 

The debt of the canal, and all costs of its construction, and the 
interest thereon, were paid from these resources in the year 1871, 
and the canal surrendered to the State, with a balance on hand of 
$95,742. 

In 1865, an arrangement had been entered into by the trustees 
with the Board of Public Works of Chicago, by which the canal 



JoUei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 65 

has been completed upon the original plan of a deep cut, feeding 
directly from the Chicago river, thus making it the grand sewer of 
Chicago nastiness, and justifying at times to our olfactories the 
theory that the name " Chicago," was originally derived from that 
animal familiarly known as "skunk." The Indian who christen- 
ed it, must have had a prophetic smell of 1873 ! Let us console 
ourselves with the fact, that we have now an abundant water power, 
and that our basins are always full, if not fragrant ! 

In closing this brief history of the canal, I wish to pay a trib- 
ute to its chief engineer, William Gooding, who was its firm friend 
from first to last, its efficient director, and against whom no sus- 
picions of jobbery were ever entertained. Fully a master of Iiis 
profession, prepared i"or all emergencies, urbane in his intercourse 
with all, lie is entitled to the grateful remembrance of every citi- 
zen of this State, to the prosperity of which he has been so largely 
instrumental. 

The opening of the canal in 1848, was of course a day of great 
rejoicing, from Chicago to La Salle. Boats started simultaneously 
from each end to pass over the route. The boat from Chicago ar- 
rived here about noon, with a load of notables, bands of music, 
etc., etc., and while stopping here, speeches were made, champaigne 
corks flew, and there was a "high time" generally. But there 
was one sad accident, which marred the general joyousness. The 
Joliet boys had procured a cannon, which they placed on the east 
side of the basin and fired across it. The cannon by some means 
got elevated too high — I guess the boys who were handling it had 
got elevated themselves — at any rate, a heavy wad came across the 
basin and struck a highly respected citizen of the name of Peter 
Adams, in the region of the stomach, whereupon he fell at once, 
and the cry arose that a man was killed ! The shouting of the 
crowd was hushed at once, and due sadness and solemnity fell upon 
all countenances. But after Peter got over his astonishment and 
his nausea, it was discovered that the only serious injury he had 
sustained, was the loss of his breakfast ! 

I have brought down the history of the canal to a late date, in 
order to present all the points in a connected sketch, and will now 



66 Joliet and JVill County, Forty Years Ago. 

go back to the earlier period, to wliich I wisii generally to confine 
myself. 

The construction of the canal of coarse destroyed McKee^s 
water power, and made his mill useless. The present dam was 
commenced ill 1839, and completed in 1841, McKee recover; d 
damages of the commissioners in 1841, to the amount of !^17,655 
and costs. 

The opening of the canal was a new era in the history of this 
city and vicinity. Hitherto goods had been transported from Chi- 
cago chiefly by ox-teams, drawing the old Pennsylvania canvas- 
covered wagon, generally called " prairie schooner," and not inap- 
propriately. 

A stage route was established as early as January, 1834, he- 
tween Chicago and Ottawa, running by Plainfield, or Walker's 
Grove. Judge Caton informs me that he piloted the company 
which first went through and established the stations, and that the 
party suffered greatly from the intense cold. In 1837, the stage 
came from Plainfield across to Joliet, and then passed down the 
river to Ottawa. After a year or two more the mute was changed 
again, going to Chicago directly up this river, on the west side, and 
leaving Plainfield out in the cold. A tedious ride it used to be, 
by stage, \o Chicago, especially when we went round by Plainfield. 
Just think of it, you who are so impatient at the hour and a half 
required now to pass from the one point to the otiier; an entire 
day used to be required to make the passage, and sometimes when 
the roads were bad, considerable of the night, too. I remember 
when coming back from the East in the fall of 1837, the driver of 
the stage lost his way in coming across from Plainfield, and wan- 
dered about quite a while on the trackless prairie. In those days, 
the arrival of the stage and the mail was the event in our daily life. 
Frequently there were two or three '^ extras," and the capacity 
of the "Old American" and the "Higley House," and later, of 
the "]S"ational," were often taxed to their utmost to supply the 
"wheat bread" and "chicken fixings" which the travelers re- 
quired, while the regular boarders very often had to take up with 
"corn bread and common doings." When the canal was completed 
in 1848, of course the day of stages was over, and friend "Kipp,'* 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 67 

and others, had to give up the "ribbons," and the day of the 
Packet Boat and "Captain Connett" had come, — only to be super- 
seded in its turn, by the rushing railway train. What device shall 
displace the last, who can conjecture? 

In 1839, two young men of limited means, but of great energy 
and perseverance, Philo A. and Orlando 11. Haven, having pur- 
-chased lots on the school section on each side of the river below 
the city, and finding that between McKee's dam and their lots, 
there was a fall of four or five feet, constructed a dam and com- 
menced a saw mill, and afterwards a grist mill. This, with subse- 
•quent improvements, is now known as the "City Mills." At 
the time they began their operations the plan of the canal had not 
been changed. But when the canal was completed upon the sub- 
sequent plan, the water power was of little value, as during the 
season of navigation the river was required to feed the level below. 
They recovered some damage of the trustees for the loss. This 
water power has been greatly benefited by the deepening of the 
<;anal. 

The digging of the canal introduced a new element into the 
history of civilization in Will county, — an element which produced 
great physical, social and moral changes. For it was then that 
the great Celtic invasion took place. To dig a canal, at least four 
things are necessary — a shovel, a pick, a wheelbarrow and an Irish- 
man. And it is something wonderful, that wherever a canal or a 
railroad is to be constructed these instrumentalities instantly ap- 
pear upon the scene, ready for the work. Here, now, is the place 
for a disquisition upon the Irishman. I wish I was equal to the 
task. It is a subject upon which a great deal has been said and 
written, and on which much more might be said, and yet the sub- 
ject would not be exhausted. Many, looking only at one side of 
him, have drawn partial and unjust conclusions. Some have un- 
duly elevated him, especially just before an election; others have 
unduly depreciated him, especially just after an election. What- 
ever I say of him shall be in a purely philosophical spirit, remem- 
bering the high office of the historian. I can affijrd to do this, as 
I do not expect ever to run for office. The Irishman has unques- 
tionably a great many traits of character. I have come to this 



68 JoUet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

conclusion after many years of observation and much intercourse 
with him, in social, business and political relations. He is a very- 
composite character. He has more human nature than any other 
member of the human family with which I am acquainted. For 
he resembles the Yankee in his fondness for office, and his shrewd- 
ness at a bargain. He is like the Englishman in his obstinacy and 
utter inability to see anything he does not wish to see. He is like 
the Scotchman, in his love of polemics and whisky; and like the 
German in his love of metaphysics 9,nd tobacco. He resembles the 
Frenchman in his mercurial temper, and the agility with which he 
gets up when knocked down ; and the Italian in his love of poetry, 
song, and dirt. He is like the Spaniard in his love of a fight, and 
his readiness to back out when getting worsted. And he resembles 
that great character, "Jack Falstaff," in being not only witty him- 
self, but the cause of wit in others; — while in his gift of gab, in 
his love of palaver, and his powers of blarney, he is " sui generis" 
— like himself, and nobody else ! If you have not now a clear 
conception of the Irishman, it is not ray fault. That he will con- 
tribute his full share to the make-up of the coming American citi- 
zen, there can be no doubt. 

As an example of his readiness for a fight, it becomes my duty 
to relate the history of the first Irish War. Oh ! for that pen 
which recorded the doughty deeds of Antony Van Corlear and the 
Heroes of " Communipaw ! " But I havn't got it, and must use 
the one I have, poor as it is. As to the origin of this war, I find 
there is now a difference of opinion. Some contend that it was 
only the chronic quarrel between the Corkonians and the Fardowns. 
Others, that it was because they were not promptly paid, or paid 
in "wild cat" money. I should not be surprised if the "byes" 
themselves did not understand at the time what it was all about. 
For, indeed, I have never seen that it made any difference with an 
Irishman, whether he understood what he was fighting for or not. 
But be this as it may, on the 4th of July, 1838, word came down 
the line early in the morning, that there was a terrible riot up on 
Wallace's job, near Romeo, and that they were killing each other 
and the contractors at a terrible rate, and help was called for with- 
out delay. So, instead of celebrating the deeds of our fathers of 



Jollet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 69 

1776, as we were prepariiif]^ to do, we were ourselves called upon to 
"mount our barbed steeds" and sally forth to "grim visagedwar." 
Tenner Aldrich, our sheriff at that time, — many of you know 
*' Uncle Feuner," — called out the largest force he could muster, 
under the name and style of the '^ Posse Comitatus'^ of Will county, 
and among the rest, my old friend N. H. Cutter and myself Nvent 
along. I had never been called by this big latin name before, and 
I felt quite proud of the honor. I still do; and I wish hereby 
to transmit to my posterity the fact that I was an integral part of 
the first great Posse Comitatus of Will county. I think this is 
about the best thing I shall have to transmit I We had also a 
military company, called the " Juliet Guards," Edmond Wilcox, 
captain, armed and equipped for bloody war. This was also mus- 
tered in by the sheriff. But '''Uncle Fenner" himself had no 
military title, and therefore did not understand the science of war. 
So he delegated the strategic direction of the expedition to Ca])tain 
Fellows, who had acquired great skill and experience by long ser- 
vice in the New York Militia, and knew how to advance and 
retreat, " shoulder arms" and "fix baganets," etc., and who, being 
equipped in Major Cook's uniform, and girt with his terrible sword, 
looked as though he could 

"Fright the souls of fearful adversaries," 

even though they came in the shape of paddies, armed to the teeth 
with stout shellalahs, and brimful of wrath and whisky. Thus 
^' Uncle Fenner " and Captain Fellows led on, supported by Capt. 
Wilcox and the Juliet Guards, while the great Posse Comitatus, in 
solid column, brought up the rear. After oue or two hours of hard 
riding we drew near Romeo, and soon came in sight of the enemy, 
flourishing scythes, pitchforks and shellalahs. A halt was ordered, 
and we, the Posse Come-and-take-us, sat upon our horses in deep 
silence, while the leaders held a council of war. It was a solemn 
time ! 

I suppose nothing can equal in impressiveness that brief mo- 
ment which precedes a battle. W^e thought of the day, and of the 
deeds of our fathers, and nerved our stomachs for the fight which 
seemed about to open. Some examined their "pocket pistols," 
and " kept their spirits up by pouring spirits down." Uncle Fen- 



70 Joliet mid Will County, Forty Yeari^ Ago. 

ner^s chin quivered. And now occurred one oi those beautiful 
examples of modesty and self-renunciation which redeems poor 
human nature, for no one seemed covetous of the post of honor — 
each was willing to give his neighbor the front rank ! I don't 
think I wished to be conspicuous myself! But there was no shrink- 
ing from the fight! We boldly advanced — slowly, and with great 
caution. Kashness is not heroism ! We did not even throw out 
skirmishers. The music sounded, and we unfurled the stars and 
stripes^ What should we, the great Will county '' Posse Comita^ 
tus" and the Juliet Guards, prove craven at such a time! — on such a 
day as this! No! no! — Our wives and children should never 
blush at the mention of our names. The Guards are ordered to 
fire a blank volley! They did so without winking. Tremendous 
was the effect ! The enemy could not " bide the smell of powder." 
Forthwith they drop their weapons, break ranks, and skedaddle 
over the hills ! Now, now, the great Posse Comitatus feel equal to 
anything? We could each one of us face the heels of a thousand 
paddies ! We chase them over the hills and hunt them through 
the shanties, and drive them from under the beds, equally unawed 
by the threats, billingsgate and hot water of the women, and unse- 
duced by their blandishments and blarney ! We had come out as 
the great Posse Comitatus of Will county, for the high and holy 
purpose of maintaining justice and good order, and we would be a 
Posse Comitatus until these high ends were secured. And so we 
eirculate up and down the works, and through the woods, until 
about forty prisoners were secured with which to grace the triumph- 
ant return of the great Posse Comitatus. 

And now, the battle being over and victory having perched 
upon our banners, the majesty of the law being vindicated — the 
great Posse Cowi^a^ws having shown itself equal to the emergency — 
it is apparent that, after all, the great Posse Comitatus is only hu- 
man, for it is terribly dry and ravenously hungry. And now we 
discover that one of the great sinews of war has been overlooked. 
The Posse Comitatus have provided no rations, either liquid or solid. 
We could not levy contributions upon the enemy, for they had 
nothing suited to the stomachs of a Posse Comitatus. And so, 
tired and hungry, we turn f ur faces homeward, and each roan, with 



Joliet and WiU County^ Forty Years Ago. 71 

one hand pressed upon an " aching void," rides slowly back, and 
by the time the great "Posse Oomitatus'^ arrived at Joliet it was 
so badly demoralized that it did not wait for a public reception and 
the thanks of" a grateful country ; but having delivered over the 
prisoners, each man started for his homo, or a hotel, or a groeeryy 
with a haste that was sublime, and the great " Posse Gomitalus'' — 

" * # melted into air, into thin air, 

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
Tjeft not a rack behind." 

Yes, it did leave a small "rack," in the shape of some forty 
prisoners. These were examined, and fourteen of them held for 
trial. And inasmuch as our jail facilities were limited, and the 
weather hot, a special term of court was ordered for their trial. 
They were accordingly tried, the grand jury having found indict- 
ments for riot, assault, attempt to murder, etc., etc. John M. Wil- 
son, now Judge Wilson of Chicago, was the principal lawyer in 
the defense, although he had formed one of the great " Posse Gom~ 
itatus.''' It was said at the time to be a nice stroke of business. 
The principal witness was the contractor, Wallace, who had been 
the principal subject of the assault. There is no doubt that he 
had been badly scared. He told such a bile of the numbers that 
assaulted him, and the variety of weapons with which he had been 
belabored, that it would have been a miracle for any one to have 
come out of such a melee alive; and yet he was unhurt. His whole 
story was so extravagant and improbable that Wilson turned the 
whole thing into ridicule, by reading from Shakespeare the account 
■which Falstaif gave of the attack made upon him by the "men in 
buckram," which, if you don't remember, please see and read. It 
was so pat, that notwithstanding the ruling of Judge Pearson, that 
"it was not law in this court" it led to the disagreement of the jury 
and the final abandonment of the prosecution. 

It is a curious fact, that when the late war broke out no one 
thought of looking to the survivors of this great Posse Gomitatus 
for generals to lead on our armies. The memory of its heroic 
deeds seems to have passed entirely from the minds of men. I pre- 
sume that not one in a thousand of my hearers ever heard of it. 



72 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

Another proof of the ingratitude of Republics! It is some conso- 
lation that I have rescued a iew names from oblivion ! 

We had several Irish wars after tljis, but none so terrible and 
bloody. Timid people lived in constant fear of what the Irish 
would do. And this reminds me of an incident, I have spoken 
of Jenks, as county clerk, etc. Well, about this time he had to 
surrender these offices. He was an ardent Methodist, and he 
thought he would take up preaching. Among other qualifications 
which he possessed for this profession, he had a loud, strong voice, 
and he was specially gifted in prayer; and when he got deej)ly' en- 
gaged — so to speak, got on a full head of steam — he could be 

heard all over the village. One evening Mrs. W , who lived 

in chronic fear of an Irish riot, came running into a neighbors 
house, greatly excited, saying that there was a great noise over the 
river, and she was sure there was an Irish riot, and that her hus- 
band was over there, and she begged the neighbor to go with her 
and get him home. So the neighbor Avent along. He too heard 
the noise, and after crossing the old foot bridge on the island, and 
coming up toward the old Methodist church, he presently divined. 

the occasion of it, and turning about he said to Mrs. W that 

she could dismiss her fears, and go home, as it was nothing but 
brother Jenks praying! 

You probably do not need any illustration of the wit, and 
readiness of the Irish at repartee. It is proverbial. But I 
have one which is entirely new and original, and has never got 
into the papers, and belongs to Joliet. It may have occurred a lit- 
tle later than the time of which I speak, but as I give it as an 
illustration of character, I shall not be guilty of an anachronism. 
A good old lady of our city, who chanced to be the mother of a 
prominent citizen, one who either was, had been, or expected to be 
a Congressman, had in her employ a "Biddy," who was, in most 
respects I presume, like other "Biddies." At any rate she was in 
one thing — a disposition to absent herself at very inconvenient 
times. On one occasion, when the good lady was especially busy, 
and did not know how to spare her, Biddy announced her intention 
to be "gone of a morning," giving as her excuse that it was a 
"howly day." "Ah, indeed, and what kind of a " howly " day is 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 73 

it?'' the mistress asked in her vexat'on. "Well, sure, and she 
did'iit exaetiy know, l)iit it was the Vai-gin Mary's (hiy." "Vir- 
gin Mary, indeed," says i\]fi mistress, "what if it is, the Virgin 
JVfary was notiiing but a woman — no better than I am." "Indade, 
that may be so," says Biddy, '^ hut sure you'll allow (here was a 
ivondcrful difference in the sons ye bore!" 

With this, we dismiss the Irishman from our special notice, 
except to say that very many of the laborers brought in here by 
the canal accumulated money, invested it in lots and lands, and 
they and their descendants Ibrm a considerable and valuable por- 
tion of our population, both in town and county, and have fur- 
nislied some of our best citizens, never failing in their duty at the 
polls — as Yankees often do — or refusing to hold office, even that of 
alderman, when the public good demands it ! Some of our 
best business ycung men, and some of our prettiest girls too, are the 
descendants of these old canal-ers. And here is the place to say, 
that the Catholic Church which forms so prominent an object on 
the Blnff, was mainly built b}^ contributions from the canal boys, 
under the active efforts of Father Plunkett, one of the first priests 
of that church here. It was, I believe, while on one of his tours of 
collection, that he came to his death. While riding through a piece 
of timber near Channahon, against a driving storm, with his head 
bent down to avoid its force, and riding very hard, he struck his 
head against a tree with such force as to kill him instantly. 

The construction of the canal was the first occasion of the mar- 
ring of the contour of the Joliet Mound. This spot I suppose is 
familiar to all my hearers. It attracted the attention of the early 
explorers. Schoolcraft describes it, and has a view of it in his 
book of western travel. He conjectured it to be the work of the 
mound builders. But I think that it is now generally conceded 
to have been formed by the action of water, nn<l was probably an 
island made by an eddy in the great river which once swept through 
this valley from bluff to bluff. The ridges and bluffs in the vicin- 
ity are composed of the same material, which shows the action of 
water. This origin is almost demonstrated, now that the mound 
has been dug into a considerable depth, and found to be com- 
posed entirely of sand and gravel, deposited upon a bed of clay, 



74 JolM and Will County, Forhj Yr^.rs Ajo. 

and not the v-liglitest evidence of an artificial origin has been found. 
This mound was a place of some resort in the early day for drives 
and pic-nics, being the only "lion" which we had to show our 
visitors. There was once a iiouse upon it, built in 1835, to secure 
a pre-emption. From the toj) of it there is a view of the lake and 
of the encircling wooded blu!fs, which was pronounced very pretty 
by Aliss Martiueau, who visited it in an early day, and who thought 
it fine enough to be noticed in her book of travels. Its beauty 
and symmetry have been much injured by the excavation for ma- 
terial to <'onstruct the bank of the canal which passes at its foot, 
along the south-eastern side. Our friend Judge Wilson, of Chi- 
cago, happened to be riding past it just about the time the canal 
diggers were laying tiieir sacriligious hands upon it, and was filled 
with .10 little indignation thereat, branding the actors as "rmicZoAs." 
I presume time and a change of circumstances has mellowed some- 
what his judgment of the act, since the " Joliet Mound Tile Com- 
pany" have continued the vandalism by the sale -of gravel from 
its bowels, and by turning i(s clay bed into tile and brick, and so 
into cash. The Judge often visits that locality now, and I am 
credibly informed, looks on very complacently while the j>addies 
vandalize with their picks and shovels ! 

In a very interesting work just published, written by N. Mat- 
son, of Bureau county, on the "French and Indians of the Illinois 
"River," I find a very interesting tradition in connection with this 
mound. One of the most celebrated Indians of history was Pon- 
tiac, the chief of the Ottawas of Michigan. After the surrender 
of the Northwest by the French to F/Ugland in 1763, Pontiac for 
a while contested the claims of the English, and was known as 
their most able and bitter enemy. When he could no longer main- 
tain the contest, he left the vicinity of Detroit, where he was born 
and had always lived, and with the remnants of his once powerful 
tribe, (about two hundred warriors and their families) found a 
refuge on the banks of the Kankakee, in this county, somewhere 
in the vicinity of Wilmington. He merged the remnants of his 
tribe into that of the Pottawattamies. This region was claimed 
by the " Illinois," and a conflict arose between the tribes especially 
in reference to the right to hunt the buffalo to the west of the Illi- 



Joiiet and Will Covnty^ Foiiy Yecn Ago. 76 

nois river. Alter lighting over the matter a while, a cctnnci! 'Aas 
agreed upon to settle the question. This couneil "niet at Mound 
Joiiet, in 1761*. During u speech which l^)nti;u■ wa-. making in 
sup])Ort of his side of the (juestion, he was treacherously assassin- 
ated by "A7?7,f6oo," the head chief of the Illinois. This act of 
treachery led to the bloody war which resulted in the destruction 
of the great Indian city, "La Vantani," which stood on the site 
where the paper city of Utica was afterwards built, and to the 
tragedy of Starved Rock, and the ultimate extinction of the great 
nation of the Illinois. 

As the prospect of a canal, the commencement of work upon 
it, and its vigorous prosecution tor a time, greatly contributed to 
our growth and prosperity, bringing in numerous additions to our 
population, and furnishing a ready market for the surplus produc- 
tions of our farmers, and for the goods brought on by our mer- 
chants; so, of course, the suspension of the work added to the 
evils of a worthless currency, and the general commercial revulsion 
of the country — greatly depressed business, and arrested for a time 
all improvement. Then followed years of great business famine, 
all over the State. All the canal towns were the greatest sufferers. 
It is a curious fact, that an act w^as passed for the relief of those 
who had purchased on credit canal lots in Chicago — purchasefi at 
prices which would hardly buy a foot of ground now, even at 
Bridgeport. Imigration avoided a State thought to be so hope- 
lessly in debt, and many left our incipient city never to return. 
Our streets yielded a magnificent crop of mustard and stramonium, 
and the merchants and thfeir clerks, and others, pitched quoits and 
played ball in them, undisturbed by teams or customers. It would 
have been a splendid time to dig sewers, for it would not have in~ 
terrupted business ! We had plenty of time to botanize, to hunt 
prairie chickens, gather wild plums and hickory nuts, and enjoy 
" the shakes." 

It was during this period that a well-known citizen, whom, it 
was feared, had become a hopeless ''old bach," got interested in 
the study of botany, and somehow he got a young lady interested 
in the same study, and the happy result was that she became Mrs. 
C — and I am happy to see them both now before me, with a son 
and a thuigiue/, both old eiM'Ugh to f/wij Lotani/ too! 



76 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

There were other compensathig circumstaaces. It cost but a 
trifle to live. Provision.-; and fuel were chea[), rents low, taxes 
light, no gas bills or special taxes; whisky and tobacco, and all 
other necessaries, could be had at a trifle compared with present 
prices. I could aliuO'it wish a return of the time — not on account 
of the cheap whisky and tobacco ! It was also a great compensa- 
tion that the Goddess of Fashion was not then so exacting and ex- 
orbitant in her demands. I do not suppose a Ave dollar feather 
could have been found in Will county. Our ladies did not study 
"Harper's Bazar'' or "Mrs. Deraorest," and the omnipotent 
"Mrs. Grundy" was little regarded. 

But there were other and still better compensations. The peo- 
ple had time for the consideration of great mond questions. As it 
is a law of physics, that no two bodies can occupy the s;ime space 
at the same time, so it seems to be a law of mind th.at it can enter- 
tain but one controlling subject at a time. A man who is absorbed 
in the one object of acquiring money, especi ii y if successful, is 
prone to forget all other and higher interests i: !iii!is(!lf, his iam- 
ily, or society at large. Hence commerci.ii ■•■.•v-^tscs may prove 
our greatest blessings. "In the day of af\ r-itv he may <'on- 
sider." It was during this era of "hard ti u s" that the great 
temperance and anti-slavery interests floui'i;-; n-J and produced 
abiding effects. Revivals of religion also Ov; -un-.d, which wrought 
great and happy changes. The Washington! i.i n 'VCMieut, which 
occurred in the years 1841-2, produc^ed at the tijic a woiidcrful ex- 
citement, but one of the healthiest and happiest kind. A repeti- 
tion of it would he a blessing now ! 

It is true, that in some instances the reforniition (»f the Wash- 
ingtonian movement proved only to be tein])«ti'arv. But in many 
©thers. it was permanent, and its trophies ar.- stJ! Icf among us. 
I confess I take great pleasure in reterriui; to -^wU cases. The 
man who conquers this habit is the greatest o" iicioes ! But that 
such achievements are possible, our historv aouiidantly shows. I 
gave one or two instances in my foriner lecture .^et me relate one 
more. You may perhaps remember the name (n \ndrevv il(»hiiid, 
as one of our early settlers. He had been a IJniled States' soldier, 
and in 1819 he passed down through this valley, on a match from 



Joliet omd Will County, Forty Years Ago. 77 

Chicago to, St. liOiiis, and was so pleased with the beauty of the 
region, that after his discharge from the army he came here in 
1834, with others of his family. Boland was — I say, was — for 
though still living, he has gone to Kansas — a man of strong sense 
and great native wit. But unfortunately he had formed intemper- 
ate habits. He had sprees, and at such times he would hang 
around the groceries as long as they would keep him. A "hoo- 
sier" — one of those men who always said "ichich," and whom we 
used to call "Chat," — kept a doggery in those days, and Andrew 
was one of his best customers. Indeed it was not easy sometimes 
to get rid of him. One time, while sleeping off his potations on 
a bench in "Chat's" grocery, the time having come to close up, 
Chat took hold of Boland, and shaking him rather roughly, told 
him to wake up and to get out. Boland rose up, and steadying 
himself with one hand on the counter, improvised this epitaph as a 
parting word for Chat : 

•' Chat vs'as an old Hoosier, who, while on earth, was very rich, 

When the archangel's trumii shall sound he'Jl rise, and answer, " WacA/" 

Well, as I have said, Andrew afterwards reformed thoroughly, 
under the joint influence of the Washingtonian movement and a 
Methodist revival. But 1 am not sure that these would have been 
sufficient in his case, had not a third poM'er come to the rescue, in 
the form of a tvidoio, who took him in hand, married him, and 
made the work permanent and complete ! 

I have mentioned the old stone block of six stores, on Bluff 
street, as being- at one time the centre of business on the west side. 
The history of this block would itself furnish sufficient matter for 
a longer lecture than you would listen to, could but a tithe of it be 
recalled. Besides the mercantile establishments which occupied 
the first floors, there were offices in the second stories, and in the 
third, residences and halls for public uses. Runways from the 
bluff made these upper stories easily accessible from that part of 
the town. In the third story of the south store, then occupied and 
owned by B. & T. Allen & Co., was set up the first printing press, 
and published the first newspaper of Joliet. This was done in the 
spring of 1839, by thirteen of our citizens of democratic faith, 

10 



78 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

among them the Allen's and Mr. Clement. A press which had 
been shipped to Ottawa, but for some reason was not wanted there, 
was oifered on favorable terras, which theylaonght. In the course 
of the spring they got an elderly man by the name of Balch, vvho' 
had edited a paper in Michigan, to take chargje of it, and he issued 
in the spring the first number of this paper, calling it the ^'Juliet 
Courier.^' The first impression which was taken is still preserved 
by Mr. Clement. It is dated April 20th, 1839, and is a very cred- 
itable paper, both in its mechanical and literary make up. Of 
course it has no telegraphic column, with its flaring headings. 
The principal items of general nens which it contains, is tlic armis- 
tice brought about by General Scott between Governor Fairchild 
of Maine, and Sir John Harvey of Xew Brunswick, in relation to 
the Maine Boundary — a question which well nigh involved us in 
a war with England. Also, an item in respect to the Florida 
war, in which the Indians seem to be getting the best of it. It 
contains the proceedings of a county temperance society, reported 
by H. N. Marsh, secretary, which contains a vote of " thanks to 
J. M. Wilson, Esq., for his able and interesting address." It con- 
tains also the organization of the newly elected board of tru-stees,. 
as we called the city fatiiers of that day. This was the third board 
elected, and was composed of Wm. A. Chatfield, Wm. Scholfield, 
Charles Clement, George Woodruff and Franklin Mitchell. It is 
also stated that the canal basin was being excavated, and the walls 
built in the most substantial manner. The coming of spring is 
also noticed, with due respect. It contains also (as what issue of 
the press the world over does not?) in juxta position, deaths and 
marriages ! The deaths were the wife of Eri Dodge and a child of 
J, J. Garland. The marriage was that of a Mrs. Coon, of Reed's 
Grove. The man who "treed that Coon" was George Roderick, 
and Wm. A. Chatfield, justice of the peace, was accessory before 
the fact ! There are also two poetical effusions, inspired by the 
occasion of the first paper, one by Leila B. M. — I am not able to 
tell who she was. The other bears the initials, M. X. H., which 
should be read' backwards, and will give the initials of a well- 
known citizen, who has often been guilty of a like ofience, and yet 
he still lives! The further history of this press it; deserving of 



Joliet and Will Cov.nft/, Forty Years Ago. 79 

brief notice. It passed in a short time into the hands of D. L. 
Gregg, a lawyer, and a brilliant young man, who was a prominent 
politician of those days, and who edited the paper and published 
it in company with a printer of the name of Hudson. He, Gregg, 
was afterwards a member of the legislature, and then Secretary of 
State, and afterwards United States Consul to the Sandwich Is- 
lands, and at the time of his death was Receiver of a land office 
in Carson, Nevada. The press afterwards passed into the posses- 
sion of persons on the east side of the river, and was about to be 
removed, and to be edited by Wm. E. Little, Esq., who will be 
remembered as one of our most prominent and brilliant lawyers 
and politicians. It was understood, that under his control it would 
oppose the interests of "Long John," who was a candidate for 
nomination to Congress. Hence it became an important matter 
for "Long John" to have the Juliet Courier silenced, for a time 
at least. Just before the press was removed, some one, between 
Saturday night and Monday morning, gained access to the room 
where it was, and an essential part thereof was abstracted. I do 
not know that it was ever known who perpetrated the outrage. 
But it was known that "Long John" was in town the Saturday 
night before it occurred. A poor substitute was procured after 
some delay, and the paper made a short fight against Long John. 
But it availed nothing, and it was afterwards obliged to swallow all 
it had said, and advocate his election. 

But to return to the old stone block. In another of these 
third story rooms was set up the first theatre which visited Joliet. 
I do not mean to discuss the question of the moral influence of 
theatres. I do not think this the province of the historian. Hap- 
pily, however, there is no need, for they no longer exist, and the 
whole question has been most curiously relegated to the domain of 
dead issues, by the establishment of the modern institution of the 
"Opera House." But in those days we had theatres, and the one 
of which I speak had no such invidious distinctions as "parquette," 
^'box," or even "reserved seats." "First come, first served," was 
the rule, so that it at least taught the democratic doctrine of equal- 
ity. Nothing, perhaps, could show more strikingly the contrast 
between that day and the present, than the room where this first 



80 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

theatre was set up, and the one where we are now assembled. 
And I think that whatever differences of opinion may obtain re- 
specting some of the uses to which this beautiful house may be put, 
all will agree that it is a matter for mutual congratulation that we 
have such a place, which can be appropriated not only to the uses 
of music and the drama, but to those of temperance and religion 
as well — ^and which is even ample enough to hold the masses which 
turn out to listen to a historical lecture ! 

The company of which I speak, was composed of *' star" act- 
ors from the cities, and was supplemented by amateur performers 
picked up in town, for the subordinate parts. Among the latter 
was Charley Gardner, a lawyer, who fancied that he had a genius 
for the stage. On one occasion he was playing the part of Rodri- 
go, in Othello. He went through the part very well until he 
came to the scene in whicii Rodrigo is stabbed by the arch villain 
lago. He received the stab all right, but forgot that persons who 
are fatally stabbed are expected to fall, and he maintained his up- 
right position, until the prompter behind the scene called out to 
him in a voice audible all over the house : "Die, die, you fool ichy 
don^t you dief when, down he came upon the stage, in a 
style which turned "high tragedy" into " low comedy ;" and the 
curtain fell amidst the shouts of the audience, who called an 
"encore'^ in yells that were terrific. An Irishman next day on 
being asked how he liked the performance, said : " It was all very 
foine, but that lah-yer made a nasty die of it ! 

James McKee and wife had never been to a theatre, and one 
night they thought they would go and see what it was like. They 
went early and got front seats, and enjoyed the play very much, 
until when (between the acts) a ballet girl came upon the stage, 
and danced in such a sensational and spectacular manner, in one of 
her pironetts bringing her heels in such close proximity to Jimmy's 
head that he was disgusted, and seizing his hat he says to his wife, 
" Forsooth, forsooth, Sally, this is no place for us;" and they left 
with their minds fully made up as to the moral character of thai 
perlorraance. 

In this old stone block was also organized the first Masonic 
lodge, and the first lodge of Sons of Temperance. Here also was 



Joliet and Will Coaniy, Fvriy Ytars Ago. 81 

taught tlic first attempt at a " High School/' l»y a Mr. Emerson, 
and also the family school of Mrs. Crowly — at one time a very 
flourishing Young Ladies' Seminary. 

But there are other and holier associations connected with these 
old rooms. In November, 1838, Rev. Hiram Foote, a graduate 
from Oberlin, came to Joliet and commenced preaching in a little 
room in the second story. Soon a larger one in the third story 
was obtained, and fitted up for church purposes ; and affer a little 
the Rev. Lucius Foote, an evangelist oi some note, and a brother 
of Hiram's, was induced to come and hold a protracted meeting. 
The result was a revival of great power, which changed the moral 
aspect of tilings in Joliet. The remnants of the old Presbyterian 
church organized by Mr. Prentiss, some old professors of religion 
who had come in subsequently, but had hid their lights under a 
bushel, and the new converts, were organized into a Congregational 
church, under the name of the " Union Church," and Hiram 
Foote was chosen pastor, and continued to be for three years. 

The Episcopal church also occupied one of these upper rooms, 
under the rectorship of Rev. N. W. Bostwick, of sainted memory. 
Also the Congregational church formed later by B. W. Dwight, 
and which subsequently built the present Central church. 

There, in one or the other of these upper rooms, at one time or 
another, have been heard the voices of the two Foote's ; of the two 
Comstock's ; of the two King's ; of the two Taylor's ; of Porter ; 
of Dr. Lansing ; of Dr. Post ; of D wight ; of Foster ; of Champ- 
lin ; of Farnham ; of Strong-; of Bostwick ; of Bishop Chase, 
and others whose names have passed from recollection, proclaiming 
the " blessed gospel of the Son of God." There, too, have been 
heard the voices of Fathers Cook and Dickey ; of Cross ; of 
Allan ; of Lovejoy and Codding, pleading for the slave. There 
have been held bible meetings, missionary meetings, anti-slavery 
and temperance conventions, and singing schools. Oh ! how many 
and how precious are the memories that a sight of these old stone 
walls awakens in the minds of some of us whose heads are grey ! 
Many, many are the prayers which have gone up from those "upper 
rooms" from voices which have cha ^ed from ''prayer below" to 
'Upraise above ;" and, like the " ur er room " in which the disci- 



82 JnJid anrl Will Count Uy Fortij Years -Ayo. 

pies gathered after the ascension of their Lord, the presence of the 
Holy Spirit iias been seen and felt there, and men have spoken 
with new tongues ; and of this man, and that man, it may be said, 
" he was born there," — born to a higher life, and to a realization 
of the powers of the world to come ! And how many and how 
sweet iiave been the voices which have sang the songs of Zion 
there! — many of wiiieh are now swelling the heavenly chorus in 
that building not made with hands, whose walls are jasper and 
whose gates are pearl, and joining in tiie ascription: "worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wasdom 
and .'-trength, and glory and honor and blessing." Yes! Yes! 
although those old walls have since been devoted to other and baser 
uses — and althougli at times these rooms have been empty, and 
windowless, and rats and dogs have held high carnival there — and 
although other and nobler structures have arisen to answer the 
ends of business, and of education, and of worship, there are stiil 
left a few who can never forget the purposes which those old walls 
have in their day subserved. T» these, they are 

"Like the vase, in wliich roses have once been distilled, 
You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still !" 

Sometime in March, 1837, a meeting of the legal residents of 
the village of Juliet, pursuant to ten days' notice, M'as held at the 
house of Fenner Aldrich, under the provisions of a general act for 
incorporating towns, etc. J. A. Matteson was chosen president, 
and George H. Woodruff clerk. This "Joel A. Matteson" is the 
same man who was afterwards senator, and then governor ! This 
George H. WoodruiF is the same man who, afterwards, was not 
senator and governor ! The meeting voted upon the question 
whether or not the village should be incorporated, and it was de- 
cided unanimously, by seventy-eight votes, in the affirmative — not 
a dissenting voice. I guess this is the only public meeting ever 
held in Joliet where all were of one mind. In pursuance of this 
vote an election was held at the old " American," on the 31st of 
March, 1837, for five trustees, when J. A. Matteson, J. J. Gar- 
land, Daniel Reed, Fenner Aldrich and R. C. Duncan, were 
elected, and Dr. Scholfield was appointed clerk by the board. This 



Joliet aiui ]Vill Coantij, Forti/ Yearti ^9^- ^3 

flrHt charier clcclion AMsy ])iol tilily full fis cxciliiig ix^ llio lusl ow. 
The town was divided into two wards, by the river. The point 
contested was to get the odd trustee, as by ,the charter each ward 
had two. It was necessary to own real estate in the town to be a 
voter. The boys on each side counted noses, and it was found tiiat 
the west ward had a small majority. There were some then on 
the east side who were not willing- to be fairly l)eaten. A plan M'as 
accordingly devised to overcome this majority. There happened 
to be a circus in town, and Charley Sayer executed to thirty-six 
of the circus employes a deed of a lot, supposed to be somewhere 
in Bowens' addition, and they were allowed to swear in their votes ! 
This gave the victory to the, east side. But although the concoct- 
ors of the scheme were so elated at their success that they had a 
big drunk over it, I don't think they ever reaped any material ad- 
vantage from it. One good thing, however, came out of the affair. 
Of course the circus boys did not stay to look after the lot and pay 
the taxes, and Charley Sayer would'nt, so our worthy citizen, N. 
H. Cutter, bid it off at a tax sale for a poor widow, Margaret Mc- 
Ginnis, who built a little house on it, and so gelt, a hom" very 
cheap, which she occupied many years, it is the same lot now 
occwpied by Mrs. Glass. 

The principal work done by this board was the building of the 
two bridges, of which I spoke in my former lecture. The contract 
was let to Chester Ingersoll at ipoOOO. Scrip was issued for $3,500, 
bearing twelve per cent, interest, and it was greedily taken. These 
were the bridges destroyed by the flood of 1838, as before described. 
A new board was elected in the spring of 1838, w^ich consisted of 
Amos Fellows, George H. Woodruff, Bennett Allen, John C. 
Newkirk and William A. Boardman. At this election, as there 
was no circus handy, the west side had the odd trustee. There is 
not much to report of their doings which would be of interest 
now. TKey gathered u[) the debris of the bridges — establisked a 
ferry, and built a foot bridge. Let me say, in passing, that this 
ferry boat was built by our worthy citizen, Otis Hardy, for the 
sum of $75.50. 1 do not know as he ever built any more boats, 
but he has done something since in t!ie way of building churches, 
(without ]uiy), and his life has bee:- rich in oth.cr good deeds, for 



84 Joliei and WW County, Forty Years Ago. 

which the Lord reward iiini ' But this l)i)ard did not dig any 
" dutch gap canals," or .sink any artesian wells. The public neces- 
sities did not then require them. They probably acted very much 
as city fathers do in these days — ground their little hatchets, if they 
had any, intent upon \k\Q public good ! And I wish to say here, 
that I am perfectly satisfied with one year's experience as a city 
father ! I felt glad, and greatly relieved, when the last democratic 
caucus adjourned and did )u»t nominate me for alderman ! I am 
conscious that I am not fitted for the })osition. I can find fault 
with what others do, as well as the best, but don't want to "run 
the machine" myself. I might even do worse than others have 
done, and that would be needles-s. And I have no ax, or even a 
hatchet to grind. We don't want a town clock on our side, for we 
have the ^^ Deacon' s'^ watch and Woods' thermometer, and these 
keep us all right ! This town organization continued until the 
spring of 1841, when it was repealed by an act of the legislature, 
at the instigation of some of our citizens who had beconie tired of 
" playing city." 

But besides the honor of being a city father, I have 
discovered that in this same year, 1838, I also filled another 
exalted position, 1 was County Judge! or Judge of Probate. I 
had forgotten it, but so it was. Judge Henderson had held it the 
year before, and though an able lawyer, he could never find out 
either how to settle an estate under the probate law, as it then ex- 
isted, or how to get any money oii.t of the office, and he resigned. 
It was thought that ])robably a man who knew nothing about law 
could succeed better, and so I was chosen. But although I had 
just the qualification that seemed to be needed, 1 did not succeed 
any better, and was as glad to get rid of the office as Judge Hen- 
derson. Abijah Cagwin succeeded me, and as he held on to the 
office for three or four years, I suppose he found out how to do it. 
It guess he drop't the law altogether, and run it on " general 
principles." And here I have to say, that l>oth Mr. Cagwin and 
myself have been shameful ly treated by this community. Who 
has ever called either of us Judgef or prefixed "Hon." to our 
names? I have been called "doctor," and " deacon," and Cagwin 
is known only as " Uncle Bige." Now I don't knovv how "Uncle 



Joliet and Will County^ Forty Yedm Ayo. 85 

Jiige" feels about it, but 1 insist upon my rights, and hope that 
'ere I die 1 shall have tardy Justine done me in this matter, for 1 
flatter myself that I have as large an understanding as some of my 
successors who have been more fortunate. 1 am not particular 
which title you apply, "Hon." or "Judge," — either will do. 
Yes, I hace got a choice in the matter — please let it be Judge. If 
it should be " Hon." some might think 1 had been to Congress or 
the Legislature ! 

I must mention one more personal matter, and this I hope will 
be the last. My first term as Recorder expired in 1838, and I was' 
elected to the second term by Charles Gardner, Ksq. Robert C. 
Duncan was nominated by the democrats, and I ran on my " own 
hook," as the representative of whiggery, temperance, abolition, 
and every other mean thing. As the canal was being dug, there 
was no lack of democratic voters. There was a fine stock of them, 
all the way from Chicago to La Salle. Of course I was beaten. 
They could beat anybody then, — I am afraid they hav'nt forgot 
how. And that's what an old democrat, friend Clement, thinks, 
too ! But when the judges met to canvass the returns, the poll 
books of this precinct and of Lockport, in which the canal vote 
was given, were found missing, and nobody could tell what had 
become of them. This gave me a handsome majority, and I was 
declared elected, and to save the county the expense of another elec- 
tion, I most magnanimously accepted of the office ! Charley Gard- 
ner always had the credit of doing this job, and though it was not 
done from any love to me, I wish to take this, the first public op- 
portunity I have had, to thank him. I feel the more obliged to do 
this, as it must have been from the abundant receipts of the office 
during the era of " hard times," that I laid the foundation of my 
immense fortune ! Charley is now somewhere in Oregon, but of 
course the fame of this lecture will reach him there ! 

r suppose most of you have noticed an old stone building a 
little way above the middle bridge, fronting on the canal, and also 
on Bluff street. This was the first Foundry in Joliet, and the 
second one in the State — that of Gates, in Chicago, being the first. 
This was built in 1840, by M. L. A lams. In building his fur- 
nace he had great trouble to find sto.ie that would stand the heat, 
11 



86 JoliA ai)'/ WiU Counh/, Forty Years Ago. 

aud no iire brick could be got nearer than Buffalo. " Hoosier" Smith 
shewed hitn some stone in his chimney in the old log house which 
stood near, and told him where he procured the same. Adams 
saw that it wiu? just what !)e wanted — sand stone. So next day he 
started for the Au Sauble with five teams, to get a lot. He found 
the place somewhere near where the canal crosses the Au Sauble, 
and forthwith began to quarry. While engaged at this, one of his 
men who had been a miner in the old country, said that that was 
the kind of rock which overlaid cx^)ai, and he believed that coal 
could be found there. So they dug down about five feet, and sure 
enough they found coal. He loaded two of his wagons with sand 
stone, and three of them with coal, and returned to town. The 
next morning, the discovery being noised around, there was great 
excitement over the coal, and a company went down next day to 
see the spot. Some of them, it was said, got excited with some- 
thing besides coal. This was the first discovery of coal north of 
Peoria. x\.dams took a load into Chicago and sold it to Gates, and 
this was the first load of Illinois coal taken into Chicago. After 
Adams got his foundry iti operation he manufactured stoves for 
William Blair, then the first hardware and stove dealer of 
Joliet, now one of the " heavy men " of Chicago, and one of the 
best men, too ! Mr. Adams claims that, these were the first stoves 
manufactured in the State. He also manufactured the castings for 
McCormick's reapers, then just starting on the Au Sauble. Mc- 
Cormick tried to get Matteson and Demraond to join him in set- 
ting up an establishment in Joliet. That was the time we missed 
a good thing. 

This old foundry took it into its head to blow up one day, and 
the engineer, a little dutchman named Swatts, was found buried in 
the debris, and carried home on a board, supposed to be dead. 
His family made great lamentations over him, and the neighbors 
and doctors examined him, and removed the sand and dirt. No 
external mark of injury was found upon him, and after a little 
while he opened his eyes and recovered his speech, only however 
to insist that he was a dead dutchman. But after a more critical 
examination the doctors assured him that he was not hurt, and he 



Joliet and M^Ul County, Forty Years Ago. 87 

got up and went about his business, verv much disappointed and 
disgusted at the result ! 

A little farther up BhilF street, on the corner of Spring, there 
was once another stone building, which, in its time, was a flourish- 
ing steam flouring mill. No trace of it now remains. This mill 
had a curious origin and history. In the year 1830 a Mr. Jones, 
a retired and wealthy merchant of New York, became interested 
in the project of a steam plow, which he thought would revolu- 
tionize western farming, and wholly supersede the "Hoosier" and 
his long and slow breaking team. I do not know whether or no( 
he originated the thing, but at any rate he had it constructed in 
Brooklyn, from drafts and models which he had furnished, and had 
it transported to Chicago, and from Chicago it was brought by ox 
power to Joliet, requiring forty loads to accomplish it. He had it 
set up in the vicinity of Spring street — a great unwieldy monster 
ol a thing it was, and the engine which he had attached to it 
could not even move it, much less would it plow a four-foot fur- 
row, as he had designed it to do. So the thing was abandoned and 
was disposed of piece-meal — the iron supplying the blacksmith 
and the foundryman, and the wood work the wagonmaker. But 
he thought that he could utilize the boiler and engine. So he got 
Allen Pratt to put up a stone building on the corner of Spring 
and Bluff" streets, on a lot which was then a ravine, and he bought 
two sets of fancy mill stones, very small, both stones revolving in 
opposite directions, which he expected would revolutionize the arfe 
of milliug. He obtained millwrights from Chicago, who constructed 
his mill after his ideas. When all was ready, after great outlay of 
money, it was found that the engine would drive the stones, and 
the stones would grind the wheat, but they created so much heat 
that they cooked it too. So he had the whole thing torn out, en- 
gine and all, for that was not powerful enough for the old-fashioned 
kind of mill, and he put in a new engine and the old-fashioned 
stones, and in time, after spending a small fortune, he had a good 
mill. He put it in charge of a nephew of his, who was not a suc- 
cess as a miller, and after a few years he got tired of keeping up 
the thing, and sold out to a Mr. Stewart, who turned it into a 
planing mill. This took lire one morning and burned down, and 



6o Jo/iet and Will County, Forty Yearfi Ago. 

so the old mill passed into history. But there were some good 
tilings growing out of this. It brought down from Chicago one 
of our good citizens, Mr. Keegan, who resides on Centre street. 
It was also the means of starting Charlie Smith on the high road 
to fortune. Charlie was one of the sons of "Hoosier" Smith, as 
we always called Barton Smith, to distinguish him from the rest 
of a somewhat numerous family. 

He had the job of hauling the steam plow from Chicago, by 
which he made about eight iuindred dollars. With this capital 
he commenced the business of peddling clocks. Jt used to be 
thought that only a Yankee born could peddle clocks; but Char- 
lie, although a born Tennessean, made as successful a clock peddler 
as if he had originated in the land of wooden nutmegs. The pro- 
fits of his clocks he invested in cattle, and the profits of his cattle 
he invested in land, and he is now one of the greatest land hold- 
ers and stock dealers in our county, and a highly respected citizen 
of the town of Channahon. 

In the new map of Will county you can see a picture of his 
fine residence and plantation, and a sprinkling of his horses and 
mules. It is said to be a good place to get dinner — I have never 
tried it, but I mean to, some day. N. B. — This is not an advertise- 
ment ! 

Another old stone building which once had an existence and a 
history, but has now gone to the limbo of things that were, was the 
old stone jail, which stood nearly on the ground occupied by the 
present one. This was built in 1837, by Bluckburn & Wilson, 
contractors for the county agents, at a <'ost of two thousand dollars, 
and answered the purposes of jail, jailor's house, and court room, 
until our present court house was built. The courtroom was also 
used for public meetings, and also for religious services on the Sab- 
bath. It was in connection with this old room that the first Bap- 
tist church was organized. I remember a protracted meeting held 
there bv a Mr. Powell, an evangelist of that denomination, an able 
and excellent man, which resulted in a revival of considerable 
power. 

To add variety to this narrative, I will now give you a murder 
story. You remember that I mentioned in my former lecture the 



JnliA aixd Will Count j/, Forty Years Af)o. 8d 

name of 0. C. Van Home as one of the first settlers on Hickory. 
He was one of the most prominent men of our earliest timas — a 
man of strong; mind and of good information and education, very 
positive and self-assured, tenacious of his own opinions, and per- 
sistent in carrying out his plans and convictions. Such a man 
would have strong friends and bitter enemies. That Van Home 
had enemies, the following narrative will show. 

In the summer of 1840, an old man over six feet high, very 
spare, and afflicted with some kind of nervous affection which ren- 
dered him liable to sudden fits, passed through this place on his 
way to his former home in Pennsylvania, He traveled on foot, 
and gave his name as Kramer. He had paroxysms of extreme 
suffering, when he was entirely helpless, and at the mercy of who- 
ever might find him. After leaving Joliet, the Hrst heard of him 
was in an old deserted lilaeksmith shop, near the residence of the 
late Samuel Haven, about ten miles east of this, where he was 
found in one of his fits. He was taken to the house of a 2vlr. Mc- 
Laughlin near by. His clothes were examined by those who found 
him, and a considerable sum of money was found, the amount as- 
certained, and left upon him. After partially recovering he went 
on his way, and was again found helpless by some travelers in the 
vicinity of "Skunk Grove." They brought him back to the head 
of Hickory and left him at the house of a settler, some relation 
of Van Home. The old man muttered, somewhat incoherently, 
about having been robbed, and on examination no money was 
found upon him. After lingering a few days he died, and was 
buried by charity, on the north side of the creek, near the resi- 
dence of Chester Marshall. The coffin, it was stated by the man 
who made it, was long enough for a man six foot three. 

A good deal of excitement arose about the missing money, and 
the McLaughlins were suspected of having robbed the old man. 
Van Home was outspoken in the matter, and did not scruple to avow 
his belief. The matter was taken up by the grand jury, and a bill 
was found against young McLaughlin. In procuring this indict- 
ment Van Home was active. Young McLaughlin gave bail for 
his appearance at court, and when the term of court came on, he 
started on foot for town, as he gave out, but he never made hia ap- 



90 Joliet and Will County, Fmiy Years Ago. 

pearanceat the court house. Tlie Van Home party said that he 
had run away to avoid trial. But old man McLaughlin alleged 
that he had been foully dealt with, and charged it upon the Van 
Homes, who he claimed were the real robbers of old Kramer, and 
were afraid to have his son's case come on lest the truth should 
come out. He spent days in traveling up and down the creek, 
and searching the woods for his lost son, and made so many demon- 
strations of this kind that he got up a good deal of sympathy, and 
a portion of the community were disposed to believe him, and 
many turned out to assist him in the search. Just above the spot 
where the Rock Island Railroad crosses the creek, some of you 
have probably noticed a pond and a saw mill. This was in exist- 
ence at that time, and the creek at that point was then heavily tim- 
bered on either side. Many went up from this place, for by this 
time the excitement had become very great, and the woods were 
thoroughly searched for the missing man. A wagon track was dis- 
covered running by a blind road from the house of one of the 
Van Homes to the pond, and a wheelbarrow track from the place 
where the wagon track terminated to the edge of the water, and in 
the mill was found a wheelbarrow, on which there was found some 
hair. Thereupon the pond was drawn down, and the body of a 
man considerably decayed was found. Old McLaughlin was told 
of the discovery, and he immediately said that if it was the body 
of his son, certain teeth would be found missing. The body was 
examined, and found to correspond with McLaughlin's description. 
The excitement now became intense. A coroner's jury was called, 
and an investigation was had. The body was much decayed, but 
so far as it could be examined, it seemed to be that of a man much 
older and taller than young McLaughlin, who, according to the 
testimony of those who knew him, was some six inches shorter, and 
who had long black hair; while he had not been missing long 
enough to present such an appearance. But notwithstanding these 
discrepancies in the appearance of the body as found, and the miss- 
ing man — as old man McLaughlin and his wife both swore posi- 
tively that they believed it to be the body of their son — the jury 
" found " that it was the body of young McLaughlin. They did 
not bring a ehai'ge against any one, but McLnughlia swore out a 



JoliM and WW County, Forty Yearn Ago. 91 

warrant and had Van Home arrested, and he was brought to town 
for examination. McLaughlin employed Newkirk &■ Wilson to 
conduct the prosecution. Public opinion was divided. Some 
were ready to hang Van Home without judge or jury. Others 
refused to believe that the body found was that of young Mc- 
Laughlin. I had ray office with Newkirk & Wilson, and I well 
remember the eagerness of old McLaughlin to fasten the charge on 
Van Home, It became an object, of course, for those who sided 
with Van Home, to ascertain whose was the body that was found. 
At length the grave of old Kramer was thought of, and a delega- 
tion sent up to examine, when it was found that it evidently had 
been disturbed within a little time, and when the coffin was exam- 
ined it was found \yithout a tenant. 

While this party was absent a surveillance had been put upon 
the post office, and a letter having come for old McLaughlin, mailed 
somewhere in Pennsylvania, it was opened by consent of the post- 
master and found to be written by the missing son. The tide of 
public opinion had already turned, when the grave was found 
empty, and now those who had been eager to hang Van Home, 
were still more eager to hang McLaughlin and his wife. But they 
had got wind of the turn the matter had taken in time to make 
good their escape, and the places which had known them in Will 
county, knew them no more ! It is evident that old McLaughlin 
and his wife and son, had conspired to ruin Van Home, and that 
they had dug up the body of Kramer, refilled the grave, taken it 
two miles to the pond, and having examined it close enough to 
detect the missing teeth, deposited it in the pond. They had taken 
the wagon of Van Home, drawn it down to the pond and back, 
to turn suspicion upon him. Some labor it must have required, 
and some nerve too, to have gone through with this during the 
short hours of a summer's night. But there can be no doubt that 
they did it, and I presume they would have carried out their plan, 
even to the hanging of Van Home, without flinching, if tliey had 
not l)een detected. This is the murder story. I hope you are not 
disappointed because there was no murder ! There was at least a 
^' corpus ! " 

Suppose now, for variety, we take a " wolf hunt." This was 



92 Joliet and WiU Coxmly, Forty Years Ago. 

one of the recreations of "Forty Years Ago/' combining with it 
utility; for, in the early days, wolves were very numerous, and 
very destructive to sheep and poultry. So much of an object was 
it to get rid of them, that the state or county paid a bounty on 
each one killed. " Wolf scalps" thus became " legal tender." 
Besides the ordinary way of killing them by traps and ])oison, 
wolf hunts used to be organized. I attended one in the fall of 
1842. By pre-concerted arrangement, on an appointed day, at an 
early hour, the settlers living all around the area which was to be 
hunted over — well mounted — formed a circle, the diameter of 
which was from twenty to thirty miles, and the centre near 
"Twelve Mile Grove." Each settlement formed that part of the 
line nearest to it, and stretching out, sparsely at lirst, each person 
riding over a considerable space to insure a thorough traverse of 
the ground, gradually worked toward the centre, scaring up any 
wolves or deer that might be found lurking in the sloughs. No 
one was allowed to fire, the sole aim being to turn everything to- 
ward the centre, and thoroughly to canvas the territory. The 
shooting was to be done by chosen marksmen when the cordon had 
been drawn so close as to prevent an escape. Such was the "modus 
operandi" of a wolf hunt. 

I know of but few things which are so truly exhilerating, 
so full of physical enjoymej t, as a ride on horseback — if the health 
be vigorous, the day fine, and the horse spirited and easy. The 
excitement of the animal spirits, both of the horse and the rider, 
seems to create so strong a sympathy between them as almost to 
realize the old fable of the " Centaur." All these circumstances 
combined to make our first experience of a wolf hunt thoroughly 
enjoyable, at least at the outset. It was one of those beautiful days 
of the early November, to which the name of "Indian Summer" 
has been given — when the sun, mellowed by that peculiar smokey 
haze which then obtains, vouchsafes his blandest smiles. Summer 
seems to have come back to bid the earth one more good bye, and 
to linger, as if unwilling to go and leave the scenes she bad warmed 
and beautified, to the cold embrace of winter. The woods have 
exchanged their summer greenness for their garniture of crimson 
and gold — and the Blue Gentian, last of all the beauteous sister- 



JoUet and Will Oowntyy Forty Yea/rs Ago, 9S 

liood of flowers, remains to grace the parting, and enlivens the 
otherwise sere and colorless prairie. It ia a luxury to breathe the 
pure, crisp air, of the early morning, and to scour over the billowy 
prairie, still unvexed by the plow and unimpeded by fences — for 
the cultivation is still confined to the edges of the prairie near the 
timber, and once beyond this narrow limit, we may go where we 
will. We pity those who have stayed at home in the dull and 
sleepy village. We fancy ourselves Bryant's "Hunter of the 
Prairies," and shout as we coursp over the ground — 

" Aye, this is ireedom ! these pure skies 
Were never stained with village smoke. 
The fragrant wind that o'er them flies 
Is breathed from wastes by plow unbroke!" 

On, on we go, inhaling health and pleasure; the bounding 

pulse, the heaving lungs, and glowing skin, joyfully responding to 

nature's bracing tonic. We scare up now and then a graceful deer, 

or a sneaking wolf, from their lair in the sloughs, and grouse and 

quails at every step. But what is that pretty little black and white 

animal on yonder ridge? This is something new, and we give 

chase. A fierce dog is already on his track, and we follow eager 

to protect the weak and frightened animal from harm. It looks 

like a cat, but it cannot be — a cat would never venture so far from 

home; or, is it a rabbit; yes, it must be, and we are in thorough 

sympathy with Cowper in his hatred of cruel sports, and resolve 

that this poor weak hare also, shall be saved from the cruel dog 

that is already close upon it. We put spurs to our good horse and 

press on, when — whew ! Shade of Lubin ! what is that? Odors 

from Araby! Balm of a thousand flowers! Sweet south wind 

over a bank of violets! The dog beats a hasty retreat, and we 

follow with hand on nose as fast as our good horse can go. We 

waste no more sympathy on pretty little black and white animals, 

on the prairie. Weak ! so far from that, this is the strongest thing 

we ever encountered. Not until we have got a good distance to 

the windward, do we philosophically admire that compensating 

provision of nature which furnishes every animal with some means 

of defense ! 

Well, about three o^cIock the circle has become sufficiently con- 
13 



04 Jolid and Will Countyy Forty Years Ago. 

tractcd. Most of the area can now be seen, A bait is ordered,. 
and the chosen marksmen step into the area and commence the 
'tt-ork of destruclion. We do not care to witness this. For the 
wolves we have no great sympathy — but it is not a pleasant sight 
to us to see a pretty deer fall before the rifle of the hunter, and 
when one breaks through the cordon and makes his escape we wish 
him god-speed. Besides, it is getting late, and we are ten or 
twelve miles from supper and a bed, which begin now to seem 
very desirable objects. So we turn our horse's head toward home^ 
not caring to wait for a share in the wolf scalps, or in the feast of 
venison with which the hunt is to be crowned. We soon find that 
•we have to pay for our pleasure by a ride home against a cold wind^ 
which, hungry as we are, and tired, quite takes all the poetry out 
of the thing; and by the time we reach home we are so thoroughly 
demoralized that we creep up to our little crib firmly resolved that 
this, our first wolf hunt, shall also'be our last ! 

I was confirmed in this resolution, when at the next prayer 
meeting at the old Union church, to which I then belonged, a 
jsanctimonious brother, an Englishman of the name of Waters, 
took us to task for joining in Avorldly amusements ! To be sure 
the effect of this rebuke was somewhat weakened soon after, when 
this same sour-visagf d brother indulged himself in the worldly 
amusement of ihrashiiig his wife ! 

There is one name which ought to have honorable mention in a 
history of AVill county. Peter Stewart Avas born in Scotland, in 
the year 1783, at "Callen(yle Ford," in (he parish of "Callender," 
the spot made classic by the muse of Walter Scott, as the scene of 
the enconntcr between Roderick Dlui and Fitz James. He came 
to the United Slates in 1818, married and settled in Amsterdam, 
N. Y., where he resided until 1835, when he visited this county 
and purchased land near Winchester, now Wilmington, and re- 
moved his family there in 1836. Mr. Stewart was a man of con- 
siderable wealth, which he had made by his shrewdness and energy 
in connection with public works. He held the position of super- 
intendent of this canal after its completion. He laid out an addi- 
tion to Wilmington on Forked Creek, and I believe built a saw 
mill thereon, and erected a fine mansion on the bluff overlooking 



Joliet and Will Cbicntyf Fbrt^ Vearn A;jo. 95 

that stream and the broad and beautiful Kankakee, into which ife 
empties at this point. Wilmington had early attracted attention 
as a most desirable locality, on account of" its water-power and the 
beautiful country by which it is surrounded. At that day no one 
had suspected that such vast deposits of coal underlayed the prai- 
rie on the south. He built, as I have said, a mansion, which is 
even now a large and fine one, but for that day was almost [)ala- 
tial. He came here in the full vigor of manhood. He was a 
8cotch Presbyterian, but — or, rather, of course — liberal and cath- 
olic in his views and feelings. He was a strong advocate of tem- 
perana? and abolition — always outspoken in his convictions, but 
courteous and full of Scotch humor and bonhomie Such a man 
of course made his influence felt in the county, in church and pub- 
lic affairs. He was for many years the main stay of the Presby- 
terian church at Wilmington, and a liberal supporter of all moral 
and philanthropic movements. We always expected to see "Uncle 
Peter" at all conventions held in the interest of morals and reli- 
gion, and always drew upon him at sight for liberal contributions, 
and such drafts were never dishonored. Of Mrs. Stewart, his wife 
1 know not how to speak in language which will express the ad- 
miration and regard which the remembrance of her awakens. Al- 
though it is now many years since she passed from earth — she died 
in 1846 — her memory is still green in many hearts. I can oidy 
think of her as perfectly at home in the society of those precious 
women who ministered to Christ in the days of his flesh,\vho were 
*' last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre." Well, well do I re- 
member the sadness which fell upon many hearts in Joliet wlien 
the tidings came that Mrs. Stewart was dead. Those who ever 
enjoyed the hospitalities of the Stewart mansion will never forget 
that pleasant home on the banks of the Kankakee, much less those 
who made it so rich a treat to make a visit to Wilmington in those 
early days. 

From what has been said, it will be easily inferred that the 
house of Peter Stewart was one of the stations on the " under- 
ground railroad." This was so. His house was always open to 
the fugitive. Indeed, he used to be called the president of the 
road. 



U JoHet and Wm Covmiy, Forty Yearn Ago. 

On one occasion he had a specimen of the kind on hand, and 
he took him to a public meeting, where he trotted him out to tell 
his story. But the poor fellow was so much embarrassed — having 
never been lionized before — that he made a complete failure — 
could'nt say a word, Jonathan B., who had hung out a law shin- 
gle in Wilmington, having studied in Joliet, and who had spoiled 
a good cabinet-maker to make an ordinary lawyer, thought it 
was a good chance to banter " Uncle Peter" a little, so he says to 
him, "Mr. Stewart, had'nt you better keep this fellow here and 
make a preacher of himf" "Na, no," says Uncle Peter, "we're 
ga'eu to send him to Joliet, and make a lali-yer of him!" Mr. 
Stewart died in 1868, at the ripe age of eighty-five. 

Some explanation may be necessary to the younger portion of 
my audience in respect to the institution of which I have spoken 
as the " underground railroad." For their information, then, I 
would say, that in the times of which I speak, there were scat- 
tered all over the northern states, (and some few also in the south) 
a class of men who had imbibed the fanatical idea that "all men 
were created free and equal, and endowed by their creator witii 
certain inalienable rights, among which were life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness." I quote the language of an ancient docu- 
ment on which they greatly relied to justify themselves in these 
notions. They inferred from this dogma that our southern breth- 
ren were wrong in holding four millions of their fellow-men in 
bondage. It was an easy corollary of this — that the slave had a 
perfect right to run away from his master, and seek refuge from 
the talons of the American Eagle in the arms of the British Lion, 
in Canada. A second inference whicli they drew, was, that it was 
right to help such fugitive, even although our State laws forbid 
them to give even a crust of bread to any one who was guilty of 
a colored skin. These fanatical abstract ideas took a practical form 
in the establishment of numerous lines of communication with 
Canada through the States bordering upon the Ohio. One of these 
lines passed through Joliet, and the first station below was Peter 
Stewarts, and the first one east was Samuel Haven's. I have heard 
it said, that here in Joliet, there were several places where the fu- 
gitive could find harbor ! The railroad, or rather the trains upon 



/o/ief and WiU Cawtty, Forty Years Ago. 97 

it, generally ran in the night only, as being better fitted for deeds 
of darkness. 

Being acquainted with several of those fanatics, I had frequent 
opportunities of conversing with these fugitives, and it is a curious 
fact, that so ignorant were they, so dulled in moral sense, that I 
never found one who seemed to feel the least compunction for his 
escape, although he must have known that he was running off 
with a piece of property far more valuable than a horse ! Well, 
these people who thus assisted this kind of property in stealing 
itself, were of course very obnoxious in the eyes of a virtuous 
community, and considered unfit for any office of responsibility* 
although in most other respects I am bound to acknowledge they 
were very good citizens. They were called by ihe opprobrious 
name of '* Abolitionists," — a name which was then considered the 
embodiment of everything despicable. I think time, the great ad- 
justor, has modified somewhat this feeling against them ; and this, 
too, although they persisted in their unwise and fanatical course, 
until our southern brethren were obliged to take up arms against 
the United States in defense of these rights ! 

I should not wonder if tho?e who still survive of these old 
abolitionists, should look with peculiar satisfaction upon such hu- 
miliating sights as were exhibited during the past winter in Con- 
gress, when such persons as Ranney, Elliott and Cain — who at the 
time of which I speak wouhl have been obliged to skulk through 
the free states on this underground railroad, and who if caught 
would have been handed over to their w^iite masters — now boldly 
standing up in Congress, and presuming to reply to such men as 
Cox, Stephens a!)d Kobbins, gentlemen born; and not only reply- 
ing, but doing it in such a masterly manner as to silence them by 
their superior logic and eloquence. I am afraid that these old fel- 
lows enjoy the sight of one of this dispised race now filling Jeff. 
Davis' seat in the senate, and another owning his plantation I 
Something of a change, surely, since Peter Stewart, Samuel Cush- 
ing, Allen Denny and others, were indicted before the Will county 
circuit court for harboring and feeding just such men ! 

Well, such a state of things as I have described, would of course 



98 JolM arid. \VV1 Omntt^y Forty Venr>i Ar/o. 

give rise to " inoidentH." I suppose I ought to ieil oue to illustrate 
the subject. 

On one occasion, there arrived here on one ot thp night trains, 
an interesting fugitive of the gentler sex — one who was fleeing 
from slavery, and soirietliing worse. It was usual to wait over until 
another night, hut in tliis e^Lse there was reason to apprehend that 
the pursuer was close U}>on the track, impelled by more than one 
passion. Hence it was tliought the safer plan to hasten on. For- 
tunately it was winter, and the morning was snowy and the sleigh- 
ing good. So Dr. Adams, who was one of the fanatics of that day, 
Lrought out his horse and cutter, and a friend of mine, another 
fanatic, handed into the sleigh a lady closely veiled, and taking the 
ribbons, started out on a sleigh ride. He drove boldly through 
the streets, returning the salutations of all he met, who naturally 
supposed he was taking a ride with his wife. The sleighing was 
good, the horse fleet, and although the morning^ was cold, they were 
nicely tucked in with plenty of blankets, buffalo robes and hot 
bricks, while the excitement of the affair helped to render liim in- 
sensible to the cold. After getting out of town he dismissed all 
fears of detection, and thoroughly enjoyed the romance of the sit- 
uation. He felt like some Don Quixote, rescuing a captive maidec 
from her foes. He listened with rapt attention to the thrilling 
story of her sufi^rings and her escape, hot recusing to open hia 
heart in tender sympathy, because, forsooth, her skin was tinged 
witli olive. Thus they sped, swiftly and prosperously over the 
ground, until in passing through the timber at Van Home's point, 
my friend having got a little careless perhaps in his driving, the 
cutter struck a stump, and, presto change! io the twinkling of an 
eye, knight errant, captive maiden, buffalo robes, blankets and hot 
bricks, were scattered promiscuously in the snow ! The horse, 
loosened from the cutter, went on! Here was a situation indeed! 
but the romance had vanished! To add to his embarrassment, 
tliey were near the house of a well-known negro hater, and he 
dare not apply ior hel|), and would be only too glad if not discov- 
ered. Fortunately the horse did not go iur before he stopped, 
turned round, and "smiling, looked upon the wreck he made." 
My friend approaolied him with the most pathetic appeals to him 



Joliet and Will (ountf/, Forty Yearn Ago 99 

to staj. The horse seemed to be touehcd with a pity that was 
more than liuman, and allowed himself to be caught and bro'ight 
back, and attached to the cutter. But tJiis could only be done in 
an imperfect manner, as the whiffletree attachment was broken. 
My friend had to send the rescued maiden on ahead, while he fol- 
lowed leading the horse. After a tramp of two miles, which the 
rescued maiden stood much better than he did, they arrived at the 
hospitable mansion of Samuel Haven, fortunately without meeting 
a single soul. A good dinner and plenty of hot coffee restored the 
spirits both of knight and maiden, and the cutter being in the 
meantime repaired, after a tender parting with the rescued maiden, 
our knight returned to the city, on the whole well satisfied with the 
adventure. Afterwards, however, when the story leaked out, he 
was not a little annoyed at times, when the neighbors asked him 
if he had a pleasant ride with his wife ! 

But it was not only the actual fugitive from slavery that was 
in danger of the man-stealer in this State. Our laws presumed 
every man who had a trace of African blood in his veins to be a 
slave, and the burden of proof was thrown upon him. If he 
could not show free papers he could be arrested, thrown into jail, 
and advertised like a stray pig, and any one who could make out 
a plausible claim, could take him on payment ot jail and printer's 
fees; and if no one claimed him, he could be sold temporarily to 
the highest bidder, to pay the charges. 

We had, here in Joliet, a colored boy of the name of Henry 
Belt. He was a freeman, and had in his possession a paper issued 
by some clerk in Pennsylvania, I think, certifying to his freedom. 
Henry was a barber at the Exchange, and very popular, and had 
many friends despite the color of his skin. He was thus exposed 
to the eyes of a couple of professional slave hunters. They .=aw 
that he was a nice boy, and would be worth probably two or three 
thousand dollars in the St. Louis market. While one of them 
stays to watch the game, the other went to Missouri and gets some 
trumpt up claim for a runaway slave, answering to Henry's de- 
scription. They had him arrested, and he was taken before a jus- 
tice of the pca^e, known to be a negro-haler, and by him he was 
quickly handed over to the men-stealers. But Henry had friends 



lOO Joiiei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

who wonid not allow this without a struggle to save him, and be- 
fore they could get away with their prey a writ of habeas corpus 
was procured, and he was brought before the Circuit Judge for an- 
other investigation. All this of course produced great excitement. 
The feeling of indignation was not confined to Abolitionists. In 
fact the efforts in his behalf were mainly made by those who would 
have scorned the name. The trial came off in the old jail, (now 
demolished). The court room was filled to overflowing with par- 
ties for and against the victim. The men-stealers produced their 
proof, and Henry showed his paper. But the judge was of the 
same stripe as the justice, and while he summed up the matter in 
a long opinion worthy of " Dogberry," it became apparent how 
the matter would go; and when he concluded by deciding that the 
kipnappers should hav^e their victim, there was great rejoicing on 
their part. They already began to count their chickens, and they 
turn round to take possession of the prize, when lo! like the Irish- 
man's flea, he was not there ! While all eyes had been intent upon 
the learned Judge, and ajl ears listening to his profound utter- 
ances, Henry's friends had quietly taken possession of the stair- 
way and the space between it and Henry, in the supposed custody 
of the sheriff, and he had been very quietly slipped through the 
crowd, and was ^^non ed inventus!" Great was the excitement 
•when the fact was known. The kidnappers were raving. They 
found great difficulty in getting out of the Court House — every- 
body seemed to be in their way. When they got out, they and 
those of the crowd who sympathized, of course made at once for 
the bouses of the "dam'd abolitionits," to search for their victim. 
Some admitted them — others kept them out, and demanded legal 
:steps before they would submit to have their homes searched, which 
only made the kidnappers more certain that the prey was there. 
I remember one humble house which the crowd threatened to pull 
down — but they didn't. All this delay was favorable to the escape 
of Henry. Well, all the search was vain. Henry was nowhere 
to be found — never was found ; and after hanging around town for 
a few days the kidnappers gave up the job, believing that he had 
escaped by that mysterious means, the "underground railroad." 
The feet was, the abolitionists had nothing to do with Henry'« 



JoUet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 101 

escape, and knew iiotliing about it. It was effected by different 
parties altogether, and Henry Avas concealed for a while in the old 
wooden block on Chicago street, which was not an abolition block ! 
1 guess Frank Mitchell, now of Wilmington, could tell something 
about it. 

I believe that this occurred while liisley was sheriff. It used 
to be said that that old jail never could hold a negro under his ad- 
ministration. I do not think that this ought to subject his mem- 
ory to very much obloquy. 

I want you to take one more ride with me into the country. 
This time it is summer, and we will go on a sweet and pleasant 
<'rrand — in search of honey! You are probably aware that the 
honey-bee is the precursor of civilization, and that she stores her 
sweets in hollow trees. Hence among the characters well known 
in early times, is the " bee-hunter." We had such a one in the 
early day, a well-known pioneer and famous hunter. Wo to the 
deer on whom he "drew a sight" with his deadly rifle, and a 
a "bee on the wing" he soon tracked to her hidden storehouse. 
One time some of our women heard that he had found a 
well-stocked bee-tree, and it was proposed that they should 
make up a load, and go down and have a honey feast. Some of 
them had often been urged by the hospitable family to make the visit. 
So they got up a party, and Mrs. Wilson, the wife of our well-known 
friend, the Judge, was invited to go along. She was a new-comer 
then — a bride which the Judge had just brought from Lowell. 
Wishing to see as much as possible of western life, she accepted the 
invitation, remarking that she loas very fond ef honey. Well, the dis- 
tance was not far, and in due time they came in sight of the hunt- 
er's log cabin in the edge of the timber. As they drew near they were 
not a little surprised to see three or four big, bouncing girls come 
out of the house with divers articles of apparel in their hands, and 
disappear behind some hay stacks. They conjectured what the 
reason of the movement was, on entering the house and finding 
tlmt it consisted of but one room, in which all the operations of 
eating, cocking, sleeping, washing and dressing had to be per- 
formed; and when, after a little, the girls re-appeared dressed in 
their best "Turkey red," to assist their mother in entertaining the 

13 



102 JoUet and Will Count;/, Forty Years Ago. 

visitors, they understood the meaning of the moveraent. Mrs. 
Wilson, lo whom everything was a new experience, wondereH what 
the girls did when they had no hay stacks. She conjectured, too, 
from the appearance of the two be Is which occupied one end of 
the cabin, that of the several operations I have named, one 
was often omitted. She studied, too, on the problem how 
all the persons that seemed to belong to the family could be dis- 
posed of in those two beds, without violating the proprieties ; never 
dreaming that the pegs which projected from the wall in one 
corner were the means of ascent to a loft above, where the hoys 
could sleep, or watch the stars through the "shakes" which formed 
the roof. She wondered, too, where the honey, and other family stores 
could be kept, as there was no indication of closet or pantry to 
be seen. With such queries Mrs. W. occupied her mind, while the 
object of their visit had been broached by the other ladies, and the 
hostess commenced preparations for the feast of honey. Mrs. 
Wilson, who kept close watch of every movement soon saw where 
they kept things. The good hostess having fresliened up the fire, 
and put over the bake kettle, drew forth from under one of the 
beds, an ohl-fashioned cradle, which, being for the time released 
from its normal use, was compelled to do duty as a flour chest. In 
this she mixed up the quick biscuit, which were to serve as u vehi- 
cle for the honey; and she and her girls drew. forth from the same 
mysterious region, the various articles necessary to spread the 
board, and among the rest the vessel of honey so ardently longed 
for. Presently, all being ready, the ladies were invited to "draw 
up." This they eagerly did — all but Mrs. Wilson. She had not 
got hardened to frontier life. The close observation which she had 
kept upon the operations of the hostess, and the glimpses she had 
caught of the mysterious region where they Z;ep< things, had taken 
away her appetite. She suddenly remembered that ^^ honey did not 
agree with her, in fad always made her sick!" And so she sat 
looking on with no little astonishment and disgust at the way the 
biscuits and honey disappeared ; while the others compassionated 
her for her abnormal and sensitive stomach ! I presume she 
learned, in time, that it is not best to be too fastidious, or to watch 
things too close in a new country. And that is the moral of this 
story. 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. lOH 

I believe 1 have nowhere mentioned the name of Jesse O. Nor- 
ton. It won't do to overlook the Judge in a history of the early 
days of Joliet, for although not among the first, he was one of our 
early acquisitions. He came, I believe, in 1838 or 9, and was for 
many years a prominent lawyer and politician, holding the offices 
of Probate Judge, Circuit Judge, and member of Congress. It 
is but a few years since he departed this life — for Chicago; and 
he is so well known that I need say no more. But there is a good 
story of him which I might tell. I could'nt tell any but a good 
one if I would, and I would not if I could ; for having gone, as I 
said, to Chicago, I hold that the maxim, "nil nisi bonum mor- 
tuum," ought to apply. This story belongs to Judge McRoberts, 
and I only borrow it, as a man would an umbrella — for the occa- 
sion. You ought to hear the Judge tell it; but perhaps you never 
will have a chance, and so I try my hand at it, and with this I will 
conclude. 

While Judge Norton was in Congress he availed himself largely 
of the "garden seed" dodge to make new frieuds, and show his 
o!d ones that they were remembered. I remember to have seen 
once, one of his rooms full of great bags of seeds — enough to 
.stock a Rochester seed store. Well, one time he received through 
the postoffice a box marked " Yarn Seed." He took it up to his 
office, opened it, and saw that it was lull of a very fine seed, which 
looked — for all the world — just like sand. Now Horticulture was 
not the Judge's "strong holt," in fact he knew no more about 
seeds than a man "living in the tropics knows of icicles." Of 
coui'se he had no idea what "yam .seed" was, or how it ought to 
look ; but he was very much gratified that Uncle Sam had sent 
him such a fine lot for distribution. He \eft the box on his desk 
and went out to invite some of his friends to come up and get 
some "yam seed." While he was gone his partner happened to 
come in, and noticed the liox; running his fingers down into it, 
he fished out three or four little tubers, about the size of your fin- 
ger — the real "vam seed." These he laid away in his desk, 
smoothed over the contents oi the box, and sat down to business. 
Soon Norton came in, with three or four friends he had found, and 
some wrapping paper, and proceeded to distribute freely of the 
''yam seed." Some remarked how fine it was, and how much it 



104 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

looked like sand, " Oh, yes/' says the Judge, "it does indeed, 
but I have just got it out of the post office, and it's all right — a 
very valuable thing it is — take it home and sow it, and let me 
know whatyou think of it." His partner kept dark, although it 
was hard work to keep from an explosion. Norton kept on some 
days dispensing his "yam seed." At last he got hold of a man 
who knew what " yam seed " was, and then the joke came out, 
and poor Norton found that he had been distributing, and his friends 
had been sovnng Potomac sand, for " Yam Seed!" 

N. B. — Chicago papers are forbidden to copy this story, as it 
has been copyrighted — for the benefit of Judge McE-oberts. 

Probably, the most sensible way in which I could close this 
lecture, would be simply to stop ! But bear with rae while I in- 
dulge in a parting word or two. The work of gathering these 
reminiscences has been a labor of love. I came to this spot when 
a young man, and here I deposited ray first ballot, and here I have 
lived almost forty years. Within tliis period, many liave been 
born and died. Nine ])residential elections have agitated the 
country. Two wars have stirred our patriotism, ani sacrified our 
brothers and sons. Slavery has been abolished throughout the 
land. Railroads, of which there was then less than fifty miles, 
now spread like a spider's web over all our territory, and bring 
into neighborhood the Atlantic and the Pacific. Immense terri- 
tories have been added to our domain, yielding their rich products 
and deposits to the labor of our people. How much, bow much, 
of human history has bee;i crowded into this forty years! The 
mind is overwhelmed at an attempt to realize it. 

I love my native State, especially that 1 eautiful spot in the 
valley of the Oriskany where I was born; but, most of all, I love 
this snot, where I have lived these forty years of my manhood, and 
where I expect to die. I love its memories and associations, sad 
though many of them are. All these years I have watched the 
growing city, from almost the first log hut to this just completed 
Opera House. It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that I have 
seen every plank and every stone that have gone into its construc- 
tion. And though very little of it all stands in my name upon 
the county records, (for which I am devoutly thankful once a 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 105 

year!) yet it is all — all mine; for I have the highest, richest use 
of it all! 

A splendid sight it used to be, in the early days, when the city 
had not extended beyond Scott street on the east, when the rank- 
grass of the slough and of the spring creek bottom were burning 
over at night! A cordon of lire, with its fierce, roaring and hur- 
rying flames, stretched from the river below all around the ea.-)t 
to the river again on the north, lighting up the whole heavens with 
its lurid glow. It almost seemed an anticipation of the final con- 
flagration. And when, its force having been spent, there Avas left 
all along its track, the scattered fires of the still burning hillocks, 
it needed but little imagination to fancy them the camp-fires of a 
mighty host beleaguering the city. 

But it is a richer, if not so grand a sight, now to look out at 
night from the same bluff u])on the extended city, and see the gas 
lamps in long array up and down the streets, like sentinels keep- 
ing watch over the place; arc! the other lights which shine out 
from thousands of homes, telling of the happy families gathered 
around the evening lamp; — and looking northward, see the great 
fires of the iron mills belching forth their lurid flames from so 
many chimneys — seeming to realize the fables of Tartarus, and 
of Vulcan and his Cyclops, forging the thunderbolts of Jupiter. 

And a beautiful sight it is now, in the early morning, to look 
out again upon the awakening city, and note the great columns of 
smoke and steam going up from its mills, and foundries, and man- 
ufactories; and mingling with these the lesser columns, ascending 
from thousands of fire sides, telling of the happy families gathered 
again around the morning meal; — and, added to these, the long 
trails of smoke and steam which stretch out after the flying rail- 
way trains, like great anacondas in swift pursuit. These arc sights 
of which the eye never tires, and never will tire, until closed in its 
last sleep. And this f:uggests my closing thought. On all these 
wooded bluffs which encircle the city and so delight the eye, 
whether in their summer greenness or in the rich and varied hues 
of autumn, there is left only here and there an aged oak, of all the 
trees which clothed them forty years ago. All the rest have given 
place, one by one, and year after year, imperceptibly but surely, 



106 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 

to another growth, younger and more vigorous. So now, among 
all those who walk our streets and fill these homes and places of 
business, there is left only here and there a whitening head of those 
who witnessed the beginnings of which we have been speaking. 
And "yet a few days," and these 

" The all-beholding sun shnll see no more 
In all his coarse!" 

Does this seem a sad refrain with which to close ? It will not, 
if we have given heed to those other words of the same sweet poet: 

"So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarrj'-- slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, — but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave. 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams ! " 



APPENDIX. 



NOTES AND CORRECTIONS. 

I. In the list of tirst settlers on Hickory Creek, page 13, the name of 
" Henry Watkins " should be substituted for that of " Peter Watkins," and 
the latter name should be added to the Jackson Grove list, and it was the son 
of the latter who taught the school in that locality. The sons of Henry 
Watkins were, John (the old school teacher) and Morgan, a well-known citi- 
zen and soldier. John Watkins came to Chicago in 1832, just as Scott was 
leaving for the West after the close of the war. He opened a school in an 
old log stable on the North side, near the river. After a little he got better 
quarters, in Father Walker's (the old pioneer) double log house. In one end 
of this Walker lived, and in the other held his meetings, and this I'oom he 
allowed Watkins to occupy with his school. Thus, then, as in all its history, 
has the living Church fostered education. 

It was in 1836 that John Watkins came to .Joliet, and taught in the old 
school house on the classic borders of Comstock's pond. 



Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 



107 



II An error also occurred in the date of the first Fourth of Jnlj* cele- 
bration. It should have been 1830, one year later. I am glad that I have 
discovered this error in time to be corrected here, as it was i)utting alto- 
gether too much upon one day — the first celebration of our Independence, 
and the first wedding celebration too! Besides, it subjected my credibility 
as a historian to a pretty severe strain when I made "the Doctor" read the 
Declaration, after partaking of that wedding collation ! 

III. I was also wrong in the conjecture that Edward Poor was the first 
settler in Yankee .Settlement. Mr. Poor himself, states that Mr. Pettyjohn 
was the first, having come as early as 1829. 

IV. Some few typographical errors have escaped correction, which my 
readers (if I should have any) can correct for themselves. 

p s —The writer was not strons; in the Latin forty yeirs ago;— it is not strangp, then, that 
after so many years' rust, he should have blumere'l in quoting the maxim, " Do mortiiis nil nisi 
boinim " on page 103. For tht. henefit of those who may know even \et% Latin than he does, he 
now gives it in English : ' Of the dead, (speak) nothing but good." 



The following list of business men and firms, and professional 
men and mechanics, who flourished during the first decade of our his- 
tory, may be interesting to some: 



MERCH.ANTS AND GKOCERS. 

VVilliam Sherriff. 
W. H. Demmond. 

A. W. Bowen. 
Russel Frary. 
Charles Clement. 
Bassett & Col ton. 

John L. ifc Richard L. Wilson. 
George Woodrufl". 
Fellows & Doolittle. 
J. A. Matteson. 
Demmond &, Woodruff. 
Demmond, Curry & Co. 
Clement & Wilcox. 
Wm. Blair & Co. 

B. & T. Allen <fc Co. 
Wm. G. Hubbard <fe Co. 
Roberts tfc Whitehead. 
Henry Bailj^ & Bro. 
George West. 

Daniel Ratti-ay. 

F. Mack, Boots and Shoes. 

Wm. H. Brown, 

Davis 6: Burgess. 

Taylor, Breeze * Co. 



Tuthill King, Clothing. 

J. A. Smith. Hats and Caps. 

Elias Haven. 

R. E. W. Adams, Drugs. 

Haven & Rood, " 

Adams & Glover, " 

Glover & Woodruff, " 

Geo. H. Woodruff, 

Scholfield & Little, 

Allen Pratt. 

O. H. Pratt & Co., 

J. W. Taylor. 

Franklin, Mitchell & Rolf. 

Hopkins & Morris. 

Finch, Lowe & Green. 

Matteson <fe Shoemaker. 

R. C. Duncan. 

Duncan & Fake. 

John B. Woodruff. 

McDougall & Cagwin. 

Daggett & Chatfield. 

Wm. Walters. 

S. B. Brown. 

•J. J. Garland, Clothing. 

Lewis Mason. 



:08 



Joliet and Wi/l Countij, Forty Years Ago. 



List of Business ^fKX, ktc. — Concluded. 



C. S. Fassett. 
Frank Baker. 
Aaron Kinney, Jetveler. 
Miv DeBerurd, " 
Charles Saver, Tailor. 
Burton & Reader, '* 
George Squires, " 
F. Nicholson, " 

Abel Gilbert, Wagonmaker. 
J. Beavimont, '* 

R. House, " 

Joel George, Carpenter. 
O. F. Rogers, " 

Otis Hardy, " 

Gould, *' 

Pratt <fc Richardson, C'a6me<i\faA;ers 

H. N. Marsh, " 

O. W. Stillrnan, Shoemaker. 

Johnson <k Wilcox, " 

Hunter & McMasters, Blacksmithn. 

E. R. Atwill. 

Chas. W. Brandon, Stone Cutter. 

James Brodie, " 

E. C. Fellows, Lawyer. 

C. C. Pepper, " 

J. C. Newkirk, " 

John M. Wilson, " 

Uri Osgood, " 

Hugh Henderson, " 

Wm. A. Boardman, " 



D. L. Gregg, Lawyer. 
Chas. Gardner, " 

R. E. W. Adams, Physician. 
Daniel Reed, " 

A. VV. Bo wen, " 

M. K. Bromson, " 

J. S. Glover, 
A. M. G. Conislock, " 

Little, 

Wm. Scholfield, " 

Curtis Haven, " 

Simon Z. Haven, " 

J. D. Baleh, Printer. 

Hudson, " 

O. Hardy, P'i.st Lumber Dealer. 
Benjaaiin F. Barker, Livery. 

HOTKLS. 

E. E. Bush, Old American. 
Isaac Merrill, " 
Isaac Fillmore, " 
George Higley, Higley House. 
Seely,^ 

F. Nicholson, " 
Elhanan Gay, National. 

Jas. A. Troutman, Juliet Hotel. 

Wm. H. Blackburn, 

Fenner Aldrich, " 

Daniel H. Wade, 

Enoch S. Blackstone, Kvchange. 

Thos. J. Wade, 

Jacob Patrick, Waving Banner. 



Wm. E. Little, 

Besides there was a full supply of grocery-keepers, as they were then 
called, whose names I will not perpetuate. I suppose they kept a lull sup- 
ply of samples. 





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